John Roberge is the Founder of RACE and continues to mentor the professional staff and clients on coastal engineering issues that challenge us. His 45 year career as a coastal engineer has spanned the realm of government service at the USACE Waterways Experiment Station, research and academia at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and engineering consulting with firms throughout the country. John has specialized in ocean wave mechanics, nearshore sediment transport and beach mechanics, dredging and sand bypassing of waterways and tidal inlets, two-phase flow in pipelines and the development of innovative dredge pumps and pipeline systems. He is an expert in physical hydrodynamic modeling, simulating wave transformation, sediment transport, and flow related phenomena in harbors, marinas, water intake structures, and navigation channels using 3-dimensional physical models.  His consulting career has exploited his expertise and includes the design of marine and waterfront structures ranging from bulkheads, seawalls, piers and floating dock facilities to innovative shoreline stabilization measures. He maintains extensive interaction with FEMA flood hazard issues, providing innovative approaches for property and structural protection in flood prone areas. He has authored more than 30 technical papers and articles and frequently lectures to public and private audiences on coastal engineering, flood hazard issues, and shoreline protection.

John complements his professional life with active and energetic downtime. He is an avid mountaineer and outdoorsman having summited all 48 of the 4,000 foot peaks in New Hampshire and almost all of the highest peaks in the lower forty-eight. He is an expert alpine skier and manages to sneak in about 50 days a year on the slopes of New England, Utah, and Colorado.  We won’t mention his emerging golf game, but he finds more time to work on this in these later years. A former lacrosse player during his undergraduate and post-graduate years, he continues to follow his beloved Tufts Jumbos on their annual quest for the NCAA National Championship(s)! If you want to talk football, just ask how his Fightin’ Gators are doing in the SEC. John is slowly transitioning into a more quiet life with his wife Paula at their mountain retreat in New Hampshire.