[1][2] The director of Scripps, Tony Haymet, wrote about him that[2] Ed Goldberg earned the reputation not only as an extraordinary marine chemist, but also as an engaging professor who truly inspired his students.
[1][2][4] His studies led him to push for a ban on tributyltin, a chemical that was used in ship paint for its toxic effects on barnacles but that was poisoning the mussels in San Diego Bay.
[1][2][5] Goldberg also published highly cited works on colloids in ocean water[6] and on pollution from fossil fuel consumption.
[9] In 1989 he won the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for his work on marine pollution,[1][10] and the Roger Revelle Award of the San Diego Oceans Foundation.
[11] In 1999, the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography gave Goldberg the first Ruth Patrick Award for Environmental Problem Solving in the Aquatic Sciences.