Prince E. Rouse
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
October 12, 1917 – 2003
Physical Chemist
Awarded Bingham Medal 1966
Dr. Prince E. Rouse was born in Bucklin, Missouri in 1917. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri,
in 1938 then moved to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign to study Physical Chemistry. He worked under the supervision of Dr. F. T. Wall and Professor W. H. Rodebush
on a thesis entitled “The association of benzoic acid in solution.” After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1941, he began working with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in New Mexico.
More specifically, he joined a group in the Weapons Research division, GMX-2, which focused on nuclear energy release. While the division as a whole developed a variety of new
instruments and techniques, Rouse specialized in theoretical and experimental work on the dynamics of polymer chains.
Though the details of much of Rouse’s career remain largely elusive, his research made a singular lasting impact on the field of rheology. Building on Ferry’s measurements of
the complex viscosity, Rouse focused on the relationship between a polymer’s molecular configuration and its rheological properties. His description of the self-diffusion of
polymer coils and the linear viscoelastic response of a single polymer chain in the free-draining limit is known ubiquitously as the Rouse model, and still forms the canonical
introduction to molecular rheology in textbooks to this day. His 1953 paper, “Theory of the Linear Viscoelastic Properties of Dilute Solutions of Coiling Polymers,” is particularly
well-known and cited in the field and was identified by the Bingham Award committee as “becoming more and more to appear to be one of the select half dozen fundamental turning
points in all high polymer theory.” (The Atom)
In addition to his work at Los Alamos, Rouse was a member of the American Institute of Physics and American Chemical Society. The rheology community continues to benefit from his
contributions to the now-eponymous descriptions of “Rouse dynamics” in dilute polymer solutions and unentangled polymer melts.
Sources
Rouse wins Rheology award. Physics Today 1966, 19(9), 109.
Rouse Awarded Medal for Work in Rheology. The Atom. October 1966, p 26.
Engineering, N. A. of Memorial Tributes Volume 17; National Academies Press, 2013.
Rouse, P. E. The association of benzoic acid in solution. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, May 1941.
Photo Credit
Los Alamos National Laboratory