Aloyse J.P. Franck
TA Instruments
Chemical Engineer
Fellow, Elected 2022
Dr. Aloyse J.P. Franck, known to everyone as “Aly”, spent his entire career advancing rheological instruments and applications through his scientific leadership, first with Rheometrics
and then with TA Instruments where he is currently a technical consultant. He was the key designer and developer of the ARES rheometer and most of the innovative fixtures and accessories
used with it today. The applications scientists that he trained internally went out to introduce rheology to thousands of scientists across the world and trainthem in the operation of
modern rheometers.
Aly began his academic career at the University of Luxemburg with a diploma in chemical engineering. He went on to earn his PhD in materials at ETH-Zurich under Joachim Meissner in 1982
with a thesis on the influence of molecular weight distribution on the elongational rheology of polymer melts. Soon after joining Rheometrics he launched their European Applications Laboratory.
In 1994 he became project manager for all rheology projects, a role that he basically continued through the rest of his career. In this role he consolidated the rheology product line and led
the design and development of the Advanced Rheometer Expansion System or ARES. He went on to integrate OSP (orthogonal superposition) and also LAOS (large amplitude oscillatory shear) capability
and software into development of the ARES-G2.
The ARES rheometer became a platform for a wide range of new test fixtures and accessories which made combined measurements. The most important was the EVF (extensional viscosity fixture) which
turned a well-known and widely-available shear rheometer into a useful extensional rheometer as well. The EVF is now used in hundreds of labs around the world with over 250 citations in the
literature. The world of interfacial rheology was dramatically expanded by TA Instrument’s introduction of the DWR (double wall ring) fixture which Aly was also intimately involved in. The paper
describing this fixture has been cited over 380 times. Aly also designed a self-adjusting shaft which turned a rheometer into a tribometer. Altogether Aly had a hand in developing more than 12
different new fixtures and accessories for rotational rheometers. These were largely developed by carefully listening to and collaborating with academic and industrial rheologists.
Aly has also been a major contributor to rheology education. Through the rheology applications library that he initiated, the training courses that he developed and the many applications staff
that he trained and mentored, thousands of scientists around the world have been introduced to rheology. The mission of The Society of Rheology is to expand the knowledge and practice of rheology,
to spread rheology and its applications to scientists who may not be familiar with the science. Over his long career Aly’s efforts have contributed enormously to that outreach within a business setting.