Sidney Loeb

Sidney Loeb
סידני לוב
Born
Sidney Loeb

1917
DiedDecember 11, 2008(2008-12-11) (aged 91)
Omer, Israel
NationalityAmerican, Israeli
Alma materUniversity of Illinois(B.S.),
University of California at Los Angeles (M.Sc., Ph.D.)
Known forReverse Osmosis
SpouseMickey Loeb
Scientific career
FieldsChemical Engineering
InstitutionsBen-Gurion University
Doctoral advisorSamuel Yuster
Other academic advisorsSrinivasa Sourirajan

Sidney Loeb (Hebrew: סידני לוב; 1917–2008) was an American-Israeli chemical engineer. Loeb made reverse osmosis (RO) practical by developing, together with Srinivasa Sourirajan, semi-permeable anisotropic membranes. The invention of the practical reverse osmosis membrane revolutionized water desalination. Loeb invented the power generating process pressure retarded osmosis (PRO)--making accessible a rich previously unknown source of green energy, and a method of producing power by a reverse electrodialysis (RED) heat engine, among other inventions in related fields. The production of energy by PRO and RED, among others, is sometimes called "osmotic power."