James Edward Mark

Biography

James E. Mark was born on December 14, 1934 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. degree in 1957 in Chemistry from Wilkes College and his Ph.D. degree in 1962 in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. After serving as a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University under Professor Paul J. Flory, he was Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn before moving to the University of Michigan, where he became a Full Professor in 1972. In 1977, he assumed the position of Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati, and served as Chairman of the Physical Chemistry Division and Director of the Polymer Research Center. In 1987, he was named the first Distinguished Research Professor, a position he holds at the present time. In addition, he has extensive research and consulting experience in industry and has served as a Visiting Professor at several institutions. Dr. Mark's research interests pertain to the physical chemistry of polymers, including the elasticity of polymer networks, hybrid organic-inorganic composites, liquid-crystalline polymers, and a variety of computer simulations. Dr. Mark is an extensive lecturer in polymer chemistry, is an organizer and participant in a number of short courses, and has published approximately 650 research papers and coauthored or coedited twenty-two books. He is the founding editor of the journal Computational and Theoretical Polymer Science, which was started in 1990, is an editor for the journal Polymer, and serves on a number of journal Editorial Boards. He is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His awards include the Dean's Award for Distinguished Scholarship, the Rieveschl Research Award, and the Jaffe Chemistry Faculty Excellence Award (all from the University of Cincinnati), the Whitby Award and the Charles Goodyear Medal (Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society), the ACS Applied Polymer Science Award, the Flory Polymer Education Award (ACS Division of Polymer Chemistry), election to the Inaugural Group of Fellows (ACS Division of Polymeric Materials Science and Engineering), the Turner Alfrey Visiting Professorship, the Edward W. Morley Award from the ACS Cleveland Section, the ACS Kipping Award in Silicon Chemistry, the Reed Lectureship at Rensselaer, and an Award for Outstanding Achievement in Polymer Science and Technology from the Soc.

Research Interest

• Physical chemistry of polymers, in general • Elastomeric polymer networks • Hybrid organic-inorganic composites • Liquid-crystalline polymers • Polymer properties by computer simulations