John Robert Dunn (May 12, 1930 – July 14, 2002) was a

Polysar Polymer Corporation was a Canadian federal crown corporation established in 1942 to produce artificial rubber to substitute for overseas supply cut off by World War II. After the Japanese captured the Dutch East Indies in 1942, most of the world's ...

synthetic rubber research chemist

Personal

Dunn was born in Andover, Hants, England. In his youth, he attended the Andover Grammar School. He became a Canadian citizen in 1980.

Education

Dunn received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1951 with first-class honors at King's College at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. He completed his Ph.D. in

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 ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1953.

Career

Upon completing his education, he sailed to Canada aboard the S.S. Scythia of the

Cunard Line Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...

. Dunn joined the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa as a research fellow from 1953 to 1955. After this post, Dunn joined the

Natural Rubber Producers' Research Association Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are p ...

in England as a senior chemist. He remained in this position until 1962, when he returned to

Sarnia, Canada Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

to join Polymer Corporation (later

). Dunn remained with the company for the next 30 years, holding various management and scientific positions, and retiring in 1992 as a principal scientist in the new product research and development division. Dunn's research focused on vulcanization, aging and testing of rubbers including NR, BR, EPDM, butyl, NBR and HNBR. His most cited paper, published in 1959, treated the topic of stress relaxation during the thermal oxidation of vulcanized natural rubber.

Awards

* 1966 – elected Fellow of the

Chemical Institute of Canada A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...

* 1993 –

Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award The Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award is a professional award conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division. Established in 1983, the award is named after Melvin Mooney, developer of the Mooney viscometer and of the Moone ...

from Rubber Division of the ACS * 1993 – International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers Technical Award * 2001 – Institute of Materials'

Colwyn Medal Colwyn was a local government district with borough status from 1974 to 1996, being one of six districts in the county of Clwyd, north-east Wales. History The borough was created on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered ...

for his contributions to the synthetic rubber industry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunn, John Robert 1930 births 2002 deaths Polymer scientists and engineers