Paul Schwab is a soil physical chemist with 40 years of experience in research and teaching. His career has focused on the environmental applications of soil chemistry to a broad spectrum of issues including heavy metals, contaminant organics, fertilizers, and pesticides in soils and sediments. He has over 130 total peer-reviewed publications, 13,000 citations of his work, authored/edited two books, and received numerous awards for research. He taught soil chemistry for more than 35 years. The application of chemical equilibrium has been key to his studies, playing a role in his work starting with his graduate career (1976) through the present day.