After completing my graduate studies, I accepted an invitation to join The Johns Hopkins University in 1969, where I held joint appointments in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Economics. The department was founded by famed sanitary engineer Abel Wolman, and it was known as the premier water resource engineering department in the country, home to the world-renowned sanitary engineer John C. Geyer, with whom I would frequently collaborate.
I was hired to continue the water-related research program at Hopkins that began during the Geyer era. I focused on water pricing and demand, benefit-cost analysis, system design and leak detection and control. I produced a number of important pieces of scholarship, including the first event study of the impact of water meter installation on water use, as well as sewer interceptor design criteria, which are still commonly used in Europe.