Hans Martin Laun
BASF (retired)
1944 – Present
Physicist
Fellow, Elected 2017
Dr. Hans Martin Laun is a Senior Technology Consultant for both BASF and the Polymer Engineering Department at the University of Bayreuth. Dr. Laun began his academic career by studying
mathematics and physics at the University of Stuttgart from 1964 to 1971. He earned his Diploma in Physics, focusing on the plasticity of aluminum single crystals, in 1971. Dr. Laun went
on to complete his Ph.D. from the University of Ulm in 1974, focusing on dynamic moduli during the plastic deformation of solid polyethylene.
Following the completion of his Ph.D., Dr. Laun began his extensive career as an industrial rheologist for BASF. In his laboratory, he used a wide range of specially-built rheometers to study
both shear and elongational flow, specifically examining the effects of design parameters, geometries, and necessary corrections. This enabled him to produce some of the first accurate rheological
data on polymer melts over a wide range of measurement conditions. He used the data he generated to demonstrate that a relatively simple non-linear model, based on a strain-dependent relaxation
function, could describe the shear data quite accurately. Subsequently, he tackled the more difficult problem of elongational flow. His pioneering research generated systematic and reliable data
for transient, elongational flows of a range of polymers over a wide range of conditions. He used these results to compare different techniques and examine data for both uniaxial and biaxial flow.
Dr. Laun later added structure-probing tools to his lab to provide the necessary equipment to develop and assess new rheological models and to investigate the role of various structural parameters
on the rheology of the materials under consideration. With these new tools, Dr. Laun began to further investigate the effects of molecular structure on elongational flow. The majority of Dr. Laun’s
polymer work focused on understanding and predicting the flow properties of polymer melts based on their structure.
In addition to his work with polymers, Dr. Laun also studied dispersions. As with his work with polymer melts, Dr. Laun developed equipment to cover a wide range of measurement geometries and conditions
and utilized structure-probing techniques to gain insight into the underlying flow-induced structure. His research on dispersions generated the first reliable data set of viscosity measurements on
charge-stabilized latex, encompassing a wide range of volume fractions and shear rates, even extending beyond the shear thickening regime. Further dispersion work combined rheological and SANS
measurements, allowing the study of rheology-microstructure relations, as well as the first quantitative normal stress difference measurements on shear thickening dispersions.
Dr. Laun’s work in the field of rheology has been recognized in several ways by the international rheological community; he received the Annual Award, in 1981, from the British Society of Rheology
and the Weissenberg Award, in 2000, from the European Society of Rheology. He has also co-authored several books about rheology. Dr. Laun retired from BASF in 2006, but remains active in the field of
rheology, working as a consultant.