BAUMANN P

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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30.1.1892 Bern/CH - 14.12.1982 Sierra Madre/USA

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Paul Baumann graduated in 1918 as a civil engineer from Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH in Zurich. In 1920 he emigrated to the USA where he joined the Fargo Engineering company in Jackson MI first, moved on to the Paradise Verde District in Arizona for an irrigation project and from there moved in 1925 as assistant chief engineer to the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. Baumann was a notable dam engineer and a pioneer in flood retention. He was an honorary guest during the 1955 ETH centennial and retired in 1959.

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Baumann described his professional career in the 1955 note. As other Swiss engineers including Fred A. Noetzli (1887-1933), who left also for the United States, he profited from the European educational system whereas the Swiss engineers were often astonished from the large American dimensions and the open-hearted welcome to overseas colleagues. Baumann was involved in the rescue action for the Pleasant Dam in Arizona, whose loss due to large rainfall was prevented by complete opening of the bottom outlet. In the mid 1930s, Baumann designed the San-Gabriel Number 1 Dam in California for the City of Los Angeles. Baumann was involved in the execution of the originally planned rockfill dam but had to change the construction because of material problems. He contributed to questions of groundwater hydraulics, hydraulic modeling and to material testing for dam design. The dam was inaugurated in 1939, and Baumann awarded the Thomas-Fitch-Rowland Prize from ASCE. A companion paper was published in 1951.

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_{Anonymous (1937). Paul Baumann. Civil Engineering 7: 72. P}

_{Anonymous (1944). Paul Baumann. Civil Engineering 14: 35. P}

_{Anonymous (1954). Paul Baumann. Who's who in engineering 7: 141. Lewis: New York. Baumann, P. (1922). Design of surge chambers. The Canadian Engineer 46(8): 259-260. Baumann, P. (1942). Design and construction of San Gabriel Dam. Trans. ASCE 107: 1594-1651.}

_{Baumann, P. (1952). Groundwater movement controlled through spreading. Trans. ASCE 117: 1024-1074.}

_{Baumann, P. (1955). Aus meiner Ingenieurtätigkeit in der Vereinigten Staaten. Neue Zürcher Zeitung 21.10: 2794/96.}

_{Baumann, P. (1966). Technical development in ground water recharge. Advances in Hydroscience 2: 209-279.}

_{Vischer, D.L. (2001). Paul Baumann. Wasserbauer und Hydrauliker der Schweiz: 250-251.}

_{Verbandsschrift 63. Schweizerischer Wasserwirtschaftsverband: Baden. P}