Gerald G. Fuller

Stanford University

Chemical Engineer

Awarded Bingham Medal 1997

Fellow, Elected 2015

Gerald G. Fuller graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary in 1975. He then attended the California Institute of Technology, studying under L. Gary Leal, and graduated with an M.S. in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1980, both in Chemical Engineering. After obtaining his PhD in 1980, he served as a visiting scientist at the Centre de Recherches sur les Macromolecules in Strasbourg, France before accepting the position of Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in 1981. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1985 and Professor in 1990. He served as Chairman of the Department from 1996-2001 and was named as the Fletcher Jones II Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in 2006. He has held sabbatical and visiting professor positions at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ (1987), Katholieke University in Leuven, Belgium (1989) as well as at EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland (1992) and Ecole des Mines de Paris in Nice, France (1994).

Fuller pioneered many experimental techniques in the broad area of optical rheometry, including simple, inexpensive methods for high-speed, time-resolved simultaneous measurements of extinction angle and birefringence, with analogous methods for measuring light scattering, infrared dichroism and Raman scattering. His group has clearly demonstrated the power of the various optical techniques for understanding molecular orientation of a wide variety of complex fluids and flow fields. The range of complex fluids studied is vast including linear polymer melts and solutions, gels, block copolymers, liquid crystal polymers, rodlike polymer solutions, polymer blends, emulsions, suspensions, as well as – in more recent years – complex surface flows in thin Langmuir films. These rheo-optical techniques are summarized in Fuller’s book, Optical Rheometry of Complex Fluids and two of these techniques were developed into commercial rheometers. The Rheo-Optical Analyzer measured birefringence and conservative dichroism of fluids in a variety of linear and nonlinear shear flows. The RFX Extensional Rheometer measured the birefringence and pressure drop in low-viscosity viscoelastic fluids in a uniaxial extensional flow centered between two opposing jets. He continues to lead innovations in the rheometry field through his ongoing work on interfacial rheology of complex fluids that can assemble at surfaces to form viscoelastic films.

Fuller is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering as well as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (1993) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2016). He has served the rheological community extensively through roles such as President of The Society of Rheology (1999-2001), President of the International Committee on Rheology (2008-2012), and General Secretary of the International Committee on Rheology (since 2016). Among many other honors, Fuller was awarded the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award (1985), the Bingham Medal of The Society of Rheology (1997), The Society of Rheology Distinguished Service Award (2009), and Milton van Dyke Award from the APS Division of Fluid Mechanics (2015). He holds honorary doctoral degrees from the University of Crete (2009) and KU Leuven, Belgium (2014).