Raymond F. Boyer
Dow Chemical Company
Inducted 1991
Raymond F. Boyer (1910 – 1993) was one of the world’s leading macromolecular physicists. His specializations included glass transition temperature, other thermal transitions, average molecular weight, molecular weight distributions, and physical property-chemical structure correlations/relationships.
Boyer was born in Denver, Colorado. He received a BS degree in Physics (1933), an MS in Physics (1935), and an honorary Doctor of Science degree (1955) from Case Western Reserve University. While at Dow Chemical U.S.A., Boyer served as director of Plastics Research and Development and was assistant director of Corporate Research at the time of his retirement. He was one of the conceptual developers of the Michigan Molecular Institute (MMI) in Midland, Michigan, where he was a Distinguished Research Fellow and Research Professor of Polymer Physics.
Boyer was widely recognized for his experimental and theoretical studies on multiple transitions and relaxation behavior for amorphous and semi-crystalline polymers, with special emphasis on the liquid state. Among Boyer’s many contributions to plastics were his heat and light stability studies, which were instrumental in developing SARAN. His investigations of styrene-divinylbenzene copolymers influenced the dielectric properties of polymers for electronic applications such as radar. Boyer and his co-workers had more than 20 patents issued from 1941 to 1969. Boyer was the author of more than 200 technical publications and co-editor (with Ray Boundy) of the widely used Monograph on Styrene and Polystyrene (Reinhold Publishing, 1952).
Boyer served on the advisory boards of many international scientific journals. He received many awards, including the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) International Award in Polymer Science and Engineering (1968) and the Swinburne Award from the Plastics Institute of Great Britain (1972). Boyer was a member of SPE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Engineering, the New York Academy of Sciences, and Sigma Xi.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic materials