Dr. James L. White was born in Brooklyn, New York on January 3, 1938. He graduated summa cum laude with his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute
of Brooklyn in 1959. Though his father, a Scottish immigrant, wanted him to take over the family business, White instead pursued graduate work in chemical engineering.
He joined Arthur B. Metzner’s research group at the University of Delaware, obtaining his M.S. in 1962 and his Ph.D. in 1965. While working toward his Ph.D., White was
hired as a research engineer and group leader at U.S. Rubber (now Uniroyal). In 1967, after four years of work, he left U.S. Rubber to take a position at the University
of Tennessee as an Associate Professor. He was soon promoted to the position of Full Professor and initiated the Polymer Science and Engineering M.S. and Ph.D. degree
programs at Tennessee. White moved to the University of Akron in 1983 where he founded the Institute and Department of Polymer Engineering and served as both the Center
Director and Department Chair. He continued to work at the University of Akron until his death in 2009.
There is hardly an area of rheology or polymer processing which has not been touched by White. During his thesis research he developed the White-Metzner model which
continues to be used for polymer processing simulations, and his subsequent work included studies on such diverse materials as filled systems, semi-crystalline polymers,
and rubbers. He developed new processes to manufacture lyotropic liquid crystalline films that were biaxially oriented. Additionally, he developed the commercially-successful
Akro-Twin software that was the first package to successfully simulate flow in twin-screw extruders. This breadth of experience often allowed him to narrow the "communications
gap " between fundamental polymer physics and chemistry on the one hand and the various emerging areas of industrial rheology on the other.
White founded the Journal of Polymer Engineering and served as Editor-in-Chief until 1984, after which he founded the Polymer Processing Society and the
International Polymer Processing journal, for which he served as Editor-in-Chief until 2004. He also served as Assistant Editor of the Journal of Rheology
beginning when the editorial board was first constituted in 1968. White organized scores of seminars and symposia for all of the major polymer-related technical societies,
published eight books, and wrote over 500 papers. In addition to the Bingham Medal, his achievements have been recognized through the 1984 Yuko-Sho Award, the 1977 Humboldt
Stiftung Senior Scientist Award of the Institut für Kunststoffverarbeitung, and the 2009 Charles Goodyear Medal.
Sources
Dr. James Lindsay White remembered for contributions to his field and education.
University of Akron, Department of Polymer Engineering. November 26, 2009.
In Memoriam: Obituary for Professor James Lindsay White 1938 - 2009. Journal of Polymer Engineering 2010, 30(2).
James White, 2009 Charles Goodyear medalist, dies at 71. Rubber & Plastics News. December 02, 2009 (accessed Jul 17, 2019).
Note: This biography is an adaptation of the following articles previously published by the Society of Rheology.
1981 Bingham Medalist.Rheology Bulletin 1981, 50(2).
Also, Box 6, Folder 37. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.
James L. White (1938-2009).
Rheology Bulletin 2010, 79(1).
Photo Credit
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.