Bernard D. Coleman

Bernard D. Coleman

Rutgers University

1930 – Present

Physical Chemist, Mathematician
Awarded Bingham Medal 1984
Fellow, Elected 2015

Bernard David 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 in Delaware 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, serving as director of the graduate program in mechanics.

The 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 classes 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 an early ground-breaking book Viscometric Flows of 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. For these contributions he was awarded the Bingham Medal in 1984.

Dr. Coleman served as visiting professor at numerous universities in this country and abroad as well as on the editorial board of a number 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 first as Treasurer for the Society for Natural Philosophy from 1967 to 1968 and then its Chairman from 1971 to 1972.