Hans Albert Einstein, son of Albert Einstein.

Hans Albert Einstein (1904–73) led a productive career as a University of California researcher and educator fascinated with the mechanics of sediment movement and water flow in alluvial rivers. By virtue of the times in which he lived, the trans-Atlantic span of his life, and his parentage, Einstein’s career forms a convenient course along which to explore the advance of alluvial-river mechanics as an engineering science during the 20th century. Professor Robert Ettema (of the University of Wyoming College of Engineering) and IIHR historian Cornelia F. Mutel have written articles (see below) focusing on Einstein’s efforts to understand and formulate central aspects of sediment transport, and in 2014 published a book on this subject titled Hans Albert Einstein: His Life as a Pioneering Engineer (ASCE Press). A memoir on Einstein written by his second wife Elizabeth Roboz-Einstein was edited and published by IIHR in 1991.

• “Hans Albert Einstein’s Efforts to Understand and Formulate Bed-Sediment Transport in Rivers,” in the book edited by Brown G.O., J.D. Garbrecht, and W.H. Hager, Henry P.G. Darcy and Other Pioneers in Hydraulics.” ASCE, Reston, Va., pp. 140–159, 2003.
• “Hans Albert Einstein: Innovation and Compromise in Formulating Sediment Transport in Rivers,” Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 130: 477–487, 2004.
• “Hans Albert Einstein in South Carolina,” Journal of Hydraulic Engineering 132: 754–758, 2006.