Ronald Samuel Rivlin (6 May 1915 in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

– 4 October 2005) was a

British-American British American usually refers to Americans whose ancestral origin originates wholly or partly in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Cornwall, Orkney, and the Isle of Man). It is primarily a demographic or histor ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate ca ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

rheologist Rheology (; ) is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid (liquid or gas) state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applie ...

and a noted expert on

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, a ...

.''New York Times'' November 25, 2005 "Ronald Rivlin, 90, Expert on Properties of Rubber, Dies" Barenblatt GI and Joseph DD (2008) ''Ronald Samuel Rivlin'', Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, 12, 234-239.

Life

Rivlin was born in

in 1915. He studied physics and mathematics at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. Th ...

, being awarded a BA in 1937 and a ScD in 1952.Rheology Bulletin vol 75, no 1 (2006) page pp 19 & 27 He worked for the

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

, then the UK

Ministry of Aircraft Production Ministry may refer to: Government * Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister * Ministry (government department), a department of a government Religion * Christian m ...

, then the British Rubber Producers Research Association, to which he was recruited to at the suggestion of

L. R. G. Treloar Professor Leslie Ronald George Treloar, OBE (30 July 1906 – 18 March 1985) was a leading figure in the science of rubber and elasticity, and writer of a number of influential texts. Leslie Treloar graduated in Physics from University College, R ...

John Wilson John Wilson may refer to: Academics * John Wilson (mathematician) (1741–1793), English mathematician and judge * John Wilson (historian) (1799–1870), author of ''Our Israelitish Origin'' (1840), a founding text of British Israelism * John Wil ...

, over a “lavish meal” and game of

pool Pool may refer to: Water pool * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a rocky pool ...

. This included one sabbatical year at the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

, USA. His post at the

BRPRA The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre, originally known as the British Rubber Producers' Research Association, carries out research into rubber and is funded by the Malaysian government. Early years: as the British Rubber Producers Research Associa ...

was the start of his interest in rubber. In 1953 he took up the post of Professor of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, moving to

Lehigh University Lehigh University (LU) is a private research university in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. The university was established in 1865 by businessman Asa Packer and was originally affiliated with the Ep ...

in 1967 to become director of the Center for the Application of Mathematics until his retirement in 1980. He married Violet LoRusso in 1948 (they had a son, John) and became an

American citizen Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Constitut ...

in 1955.

Work

His work began with his 1944 observation that "although very little force is required to detach Scotch tape from an adherend, the work expended in doing so is very large". This is from the elastic effects of the adhesive, on which he commented even if "one idealized the adhesive as a perfectly elastic material there appeared to be no body of mathematical theory which would provide a basis for calculations". Existing theories were only on very small deformations, so from 1945 to 1951, Rivlin was one of the creators of the modern theory of large elastic deformations, including theory of Neo-Hookean solids and Mooney-Rivlin solids.A. N. Gent (2005) "Ronald N. Rivlin", Journal of Elasticity (2005) 81: 111–113 He also made major contributions to the theory of

non-Newtonian fluid A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, i.e., constant viscosity independent of stress. In non-Newtonian fluids, viscosity can change when under force to either more liquid or more solid. Ketchup, for exa ...

flow, including in the Rivlin-Ericksen expansion.Ronald Rivlin
biography of 2007, Symposium on Materials

Honours and awards

* Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology in 1958. *

Timoshenko Medal The Timoshenko Medal is an award given annually by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to an individual "in recognition of distinguished contributions to the field of applied mechanics." The Timoshenko Medal, widely regarded as the ...

of the

ASME The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) is an American professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via " continuing ...

in 1987 *

Charles Goodyear Medal The Charles Goodyear Medal is the highest honor conferred by the American Chemical Society, Rubber Division. Established in 1941, the award is named after Charles Goodyear, the discoverer of vulcanization, and consists of a gold medal, a framed c ...

of the

American Chemical Society The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a scientific society based in the United States that supports scientific inquiry in the field of chemistry. Founded in 1876 at New York University, the ACS currently has more than 155,000 members at all ...

's Rubber Division in 1992. * von Karman Medal of the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

in 1993 * Member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

* Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, ...

* President of the Society of Rheology * Chairman of th
Society for Natural Philosophy
* Chairman of the U
National Committee for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
* Chairman, Applied Mechanics Division,

Rivlin was invited to speak in 1972 at the induction of Melvin Mooney into the

International Rubber Science Hall of Fame The International Rubber Hall of Fame recognizes the careers of notable professionals in rubber technology. It is jointly sponsored by the Maurice Morton Institute of Polymer Science at The University of Akron and the Rubber Division of the Amer ...

. At first he understood that he was to be inducted, but when he was told that candidates had to be deceased, he said "That's too great a price to pay". It was in 2008 that Rivlin was inducted into the

(IRSHF) by the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society.

References

* Tomas Carlsson &

Frank Matthews Leslie Professor Frank Matthews Leslie FRS FRSE (8 March 1935 – 15 June 2000) was a Scottish mathematical physicist specializing in continuum mechanics. He is remembered for the Ericksen–Leslie Theory which he developed with Jerald Ericksen to d ...

(1999) "The development of theory for flow and dynamic effects for nematic liquid crystals", ''Liquid Crystals'' 26(9):1267–80.

External links

*
Rivlin's contribution to Fracture Mechanics in Rubber

An early photograph of Ronald Rivlin
fro
AIP

photograph of Rivlin
fro

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivlin, Ronald 1915 births 2005 deaths Mathematicians from London Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge English physicists 20th-century English mathematicians Polymer scientists and engineers Rheologists Brown University faculty Lehigh University faculty Solid mechanics 20th-century American mathematicians