Roger S. Porter
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Inducted 1991
Roger S. Porter (1928 – 1998) made outstanding contributions to polymer science and engineering as a creative research scientist, educator, administrator, editor, and consultant to the plastics industry.
Born in 1928 in Windom, Minnesota, he received his B.S. degree in chemistry in 1950 from the University of California and his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Washington in 1956. Porter’s subsequent research covered both the academic and industrial sectors. He was Senior Research Associate at Chevron for ten years and then Associate Professor and Professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 25 years.
Porter authored and co-authored more than 400 articles, two books, and many book chapters. He has several patents in the fields of analysis, characterization, calorimetry, and rheology of polymers, and his work on the fundamentals of polyethylene fibers, now commercialized, earned him several national and international awards.
As an educator, he directed the research activities of more than 25 doctoral students. In addition to teaching at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he held five visiting professorship positions and two adjunct teaching assignments at other universities in the United States and overseas.
As an administrator at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Porter significantly advanced the field of polymer science. He was the first director of what has become one of the world’s largest educational units dedicated to Polymer Science and Engineering education and research. He also initiated and co-directed the National Science Foundation Materials Research Laboratory, the only U.S. laboratory devoted to polymers at the time.
Porter was a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), the American Chemical Society, and the Society of Rheology, and was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the North American Thermal Analysis Society. Porter also served as chief editor of the SPE’s Journal of Polymer Engineering and Science for many years. During his tenure as editor, the journal gained world-class stature.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic Materials, Plastics Education