Paul John Flory: A Life of Science and Friends

Gary D. Patterson, PhD, is professor of chemical physics and polymer science at Carnegie Mellon University. He earned his PhD in physical chemistry from Stanford University working with Paul John Flory. He was a member of technical staff in the Chemical Physics Department of AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1972 to 1984 and received the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research in 1981 for his work on the structure and dynamics of amorphous polymers using light scattering. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has published more than 100 papers in technical journals such as Macromolecules, the Journal of Chemical Physics, and the Journal of Polymer Science. He is the author of Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules (CRC Press, 2007). He is now a chemical historian and has published many articles and books on the history of polymer science and the history of physical chemistry. He is the Chair of the History of Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. He has been associated with the Chemical Heritage Foundation since 2004 and is now the Chair of the Heritage Council and is a member of the Board of Directors.

James E. Mark, PhD, is professor of chemistry emeritus at the University of Cincinnati. He earned his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He fell in love with polymer science while working with Tom Fox at Rohm and Haas during a break in his undergraduate years. He followed this star as a postdoctoral fellow with Paul Flory at Stanford. He rose to the position of professor at the University of Michigan (1972) before being appointed to the University of Cincinnati in 1977. He was the director of the Polymer Research Center and a distinguished research professor. He has published extensively in the areas of physical chemistry of macromolecules, especially rubber. He has been honored with many awards