James E. Mark (December 14, 1934 - September 23, 2017) was a Distinguished Research Professor at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

. Mark made important contributions to understanding the

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mecha ...

of polymers. His contributions included models of the

elasticity Elasticity often refers to: *Elasticity (physics), continuum mechanics of bodies that deform reversibly under stress Elasticity may also refer to: Information technology * Elasticity (data store), the flexibility of the data model and the cl ...

of polymer networks, hybrid organic-inorganic composites, liquid-crystalline polymers, and a variety of computer simulations.

Personal

Mark was born on December 14, 1934, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Education

Mark received his B.S. degree in 1957 in Chemistry from

Wilkes College Wilkes University is a private university in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. It has over 2,200 undergraduates and over 2,200 graduate students (both full and part-time). Wilkes was founded in 1933 as a satellite campus of Bucknell University, and bec ...

and his Ph.D. degree in 1962 in

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

. After completing his doctoral work, he served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University under

Paul J. Flory Paul John Flory (June 19, 1910 – September 9, 1985) was an American chemist and Nobel laureate who was known for his work in the field of polymers, or macromolecules. He was a leading pioneer in understanding the behavior of polymers in solu ...

Career

Mark entered academia as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the

Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn The New York University Tandon School of Engineering (commonly referred to as Tandon) is the engineering and applied sciences school of New York University. Tandon is the second oldest private engineering and technology school in the United Sta ...

. He later moved to the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, where he became a Full Professor in 1972. In 1977, he assumed the position of Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati, and served as Chairman of the Physical Chemistry Division and Director of the Polymer Research Center. In 1987, he was named the first Distinguished Research Professor, a position he holds at the present time. He is the founding editor of the journal '' Computational and Theoretical Polymer Science'', which was started in 1990, is an editor for the journal ''Polymer''.

Awards

Mark has received many awards including the Whitby Award and the 1999

Charles Goodyear Medal The Charles Goodyear Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division. Established in 1941, the award is named after Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vulcanization, and consists of a gold medal, a framed c ...

(Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society), the ACS Applied Polymer Science Award, the Flory Polymer Education Award (ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry), the ACS Kipping Award in Silicon Chemistry.

Bibliography

External links

Audio interview
with James E. Mark.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mark, James E. 1934 births 2017 deaths Polymer scientists and engineers University of Cincinnati faculty University of Michigan faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society