James Lindsay White (January 3, 1938 – November 26, 2009) was an American polymer scientist. White was a key figure in defining the field of

polymer engineering Polymer engineering is generally an engineering field that designs, analyses, and modifies polymer materials. Polymer engineering covers aspects of the petrochemical industry, polymerization, structure and characterization of polymers, properties of ...

. He founded two polymer engineering programs, one at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

and the other at the

University of Akron The University of Akron is a public research university in Akron, Ohio. It is part of the University System of Ohio. As a STEM-focused institution, it focuses on industries such as polymers, advanced materials, and engineering. It is classified ...

. He also founded the International Polymer Processing Society and two scholarly journals: the '' Journal of Polymer Engineering'' and the '' International Polymer Processing Journal''. He authored the textbook ''Rubber Processing'', which was long popular among engineers. He published more than 500 papers and eight books based on his studies of flow in internal mixers, pin barrel extruders, and twin screw extruders with and without simultaneous chemical reactions. He received the

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 ...

in 2009, for “fundamental understanding of rheology and mathematical modeling of unfilled and filled rubbers and simulations of flow in batch and continuous mixing machines.” He received the

Bingham Medal The Bingham Medal is an annual award for outstanding contributions to the field of rheology awarded at the Annual Meeting of The Society of Rheology. It was instituted in 1948 by the society to commemorate Eugene C. Bingham (1878–1945). List o ...

in 1981.

Education

White obtained his BS in chemical engineering at the

Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute 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 then pursued graduate studies in the research group of Arthur B. Metzner at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

, receiving his MS degree in 1962 and his doctorate in 1965. His research resulted in development of the White-Metzner

rheological Rheology (; ) is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid (liquid or gas) state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applie ...

model, which is still widely used in polymer processing simulations.

Career

*1963-1967 - research engineer and group leader at the

United States Rubber Company The company formerly known as the United States Rubber Company, now Uniroyal, is an American manufacturer of tires and other synthetic rubber-related products, as well as variety of items for military use, such as ammunition, explosives, chemi ...

, where his colleague Noboru Tokita introduced White to his future wife Yoko Masaki. *1967-1983 - associate professor at the

and later founder of the school's Polymer and Engineering masters and doctorate program *Founded the '' Journal of Polymer Engineering'', serving as editor until 1984 *1983-2009 - center director and department chair of the Institute and Department of Polymer Engineering at the

*Started the

Polymer Processing Society A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + ''-mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic and ...

in 1985 along with the Society's journal, ''

International Polymer Processing International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

''. He served as editor of the journal from 1986 to 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, James 1938 births 2009 deaths Polymer scientists and engineers Rheologists University of Akron faculty