December 29, 1855:William T. Sedgwick is born. William Thompson Sedgwick (December 29, 1855, West Hartford – January 25, 1921, Boston) was a key figure in shaping public health in the United States. He completed his college education at the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University in 1877 and received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1881. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1883 until his death in 1921, aged 65, initially as Associate Professor (1884), as tenured Professor (1891) and eventually as head of the department of Biology and Public Health. Also, he was curator of the Lowell Institute from 1897 on.
Sedgwick was the first president of the Society of American Bacteriologists (now American Society for Microbiology) in 1899-1901.” He was a mentor to George Warren Fuller and George C. Whipple who would both go on to notable careers in water and wastewater technology.
Reference: “William Thompson Sedgwick.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Sedgwick, retrieved December 27, 2012.