Donald J. Plazek

University of Pittsburgh

January 12, 1931 – July 17, 2023

Physical Chemist

Awarded Bingham Medal 1995

Fellow, Elected 2015

Don Plazek is a physical chemist who specializes in exquisitely careful measurements of polymer viscoelasticity and their relation to molecular structure. Plazek graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a B.S. in Chemistry in 1953 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1957. After a year of continued research under John D. Ferry (1953 Bingham Medalist) at the University of Wisconsin, Plazek received a fellowship for independent, fundamental research at the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh. In 1967 he was appointed Associate Professor in the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh. He attained the rank of Professor in 1975, becoming Emeritus Professor in 1993 when he retired. From 1987 to 1995, he also served as Adjunct Professor in the Chemistry Department at Carnegie Mellon University.

Much of Plazek’s early experimental work dealt with the measurement of torsional creep and the use of time-temperature superposition. This resulted in improved methods for converting the measured creep data to other viscoelastic functions, such as the dynamic modulus. In the early 1980’s, he turned his attention to the viscoelasticity of polymers, organic glasses, and chalcogenides, making important contributions to this area of research as well. Plazek was the first to design a magnetically-levitated creep rheometer. His ingenuity and versatility in constructing unique controlled stress rheometers is evidenced by the accuracy and dynamic range of his measurements, the important inter-relationships these measurements illuminated, and the clarity with which he communicated the basic principles of viscoelasticity.

Plazek served as an Associate Editor of Rubber Chemistry and Technology from 1993 to 1998, a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Polymer Science (Physics) from 1991 to 1999, a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow in Scotland from 1976-1977, and held a Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at Kyoto University in Uji, Japan from 1987-1988. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1973. He received the George Stafford Whitby Award of the American Chemical Society Rubber Division in 1993, just two years before he was awarded the Bingham Medal in 1995. He was elected as Fellow of the American Chemical Society through the Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) in 2006. He also received the Fernley H. Banbury Award presented by the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society in 2009. In 2012, Plazek was awarded the American Chemical Society Sixty-Year Member Award.