Anti-Pollution Work Honored

Two Swiss-born scientists Friday were named winners of the 1986 Tyler Prize for their work to control pollution of lakes in the United States, Switzerland and other parts of the world.

Chemist Werner Stumm, the “conscience of the Swiss lakes,” and biologist Richard A. Vollenweider, who led the way for reversal of pollution in the Great Lakes, each will receive $75,000 and a gold medallion during a formal dinner ceremony tonight at Chasen’s in Los Angeles.

The environmental prize, established 13 years ago by Alice C. Tyler and her late husband, Farmers Insurance Group founder John C. Tyler, is administered by the University of Southern California.

Stumm, 62, director of the Swiss Federal Institute for Water Resources and Water Pollution Control, is widely regarded as the father of aquatic chemistry. He is professor of water control at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

He is credited with the preservation and enhancement of the water environment in Switzerland, the United States and elsewhere through his work in the detection and treatment of water pollution and his emphasis on curbing industrial and agricultural causes of pollution.

Vollenweider, 64, senior scientist at Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute at the Canada Center for Inland Waters in Burlington, Ontario, pinpointed phosphorous and other nutrients in sewage, agricultural and industrial effluence as the causes of excessive algae and other vegetation choking the Great Lakes and other freshwater bodies.

His 1968 report led to a joint U.S.-Canadian cleanup effort that has all but restored once-dying Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.