Bernard D. Coleman
Rutgers University
1930 – Present
Physical Chemist, Mathematician
Awarded Bingham Medal 1984
Fellow, Elected 2015
Bernard David Coleman was born on July 5, 1930 in New York City. Coleman received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Indiana in 1951, after which he attended
Yale University where he received his M.S. in 1952 and Ph.D. in 1954, both in Physical Chemistry. After graduating with his doctorate, he went to work for the Du Pont
Company at the Carothers Research Laboratory conducting basic studies on the tensile strength of fibers. He left the company after three years to take the position of
senior fellow at the Mellon Institute, and he remained there from 1957 to 1988. During this time, he was also a professor of mathematics (1967-1988), professor of biology
(1974-1988), and professor of chemistry (1984-1988) at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1988 he moved to Rutgers University to become the J. Willard Gibbs Professor of
Thermomechanics. He also served as a professor of mathematics and director of the graduate program in mechanics.
The basic and varied contributions to rheology made by Professor Coleman and his collaborators include theoretical studies of viscometric flows of non-Newtonian fluids,
linear and nonlinear viscoelasticity, thermodynamics of deforming materials, wave propagation in nonlinear visco-elastic materials, stability of various types of flows
and deformations, and the birefringence of flowing and deforming materials. His work is noted for its mathematical rigor, whilst also focusing on key results that can
be compared with appropriate experimental data. He coauthored a ground-breaking book Viscometric Flows on Non-Newtonian Fluids, written in collaboration with H. Markowitz and W. Noll, that received wide recognition.
Besides its noteworthy theoretical content, the book still stands as a landmark reference on viscometry and the measurement of elastic normal-stress differences.
Dr. Coleman has been a visiting professor at numerous universities in this country and abroad. He also served on various university committees and on the editorial board
of journals on rational mechanics and mathematical biology. He was a member of the board of directors of the Renaissance and Baroque Society in Pittsburgh from 1974 to
1979, served as the American chairman at the Venice Symposium of the United States-Italy Cooperative Science Program in 1978, and served as the Society for Natural
Philosophy Treasurer from 1967 to 1968 then Chairman from 1971 to 1972. It is because of his mathematically-rigorous and experimentally-verifiable research in rheology
that Coleman was awarded the Bingham Medal in 1984.
Sources
Bernard D. Coleman. Prabook (accessed July 25, 2019).
Coleman Receives Bingham Medal from Society of Rheology. Physics Today 1985, 38(2), 90.
Note: This biography is an adaptation of the following articles previously published by The Society of Rheology.
1984 Bingham Medalist. Rheology Bulletin 1984, 53(2).
Also, Box 6, Folder 43. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.
Photo Credit
AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.