Melvin Mooney (1893–1968) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

and rheologist.

Life

Mooney was born in Kansas City, Missouri.J. H. Dillon (1948) J. Colloid Sci. 4 (3) 187-8 "Introduction of Melvin Mooney as E. C. Bingham Medallist" He achieved an A.B. degree from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

in 1917 and a PhD in physics from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

in 1923. He worked for 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, chemical ...

. He developed the Mooney viscometer (used to measure viscosity of rubber compounds during curing) and other testing equipment used in the rubber industry. He also proposed the Mooney-Rivlin solid constitutive law describing the hyperelastic stress–strain behavior of rubber. He was the first recipient of 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 ...

from the

Society of Rheology The Society of Rheology is an American professional society formed in December, 1929 to represent scientists and technologists working in the field of rheology, the science of the deformation and flow of matter. Current membership is of the order ...

in 1948. 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 ...

in 1962. He is the namesake of the Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

Rubber Division.ACS Rubber Division
Science & Technology Awards Descriptions & Sponsors

References

External links

A photograph of Melvin Mooney
fro

Audio interview
with Melvin Mooney. Polymer scientists and engineers 1893 births 1968 deaths Rheologists 20th-century American physicists Solid mechanics Scientists from Kansas City, Missouri University of Missouri alumni University of Chicago alumni Physicists from Missouri Scientists from Missouri University of Missouri physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society {{US-physicist-stub