Alan Neville Gent (11 November 1927 – 20 September 2012) was a British-American physicist. A professor at the University of Akron, he was recognized during his lifetime as a world-leading authority on the topics of adhesion physics, crystalline and glassy Polymer, polymers, and the fracturing of rubber.

Biography

Gent was born in Leicester, England. He obtained degrees in Physics and Mathematics at the University of London, and a doctorate in 1955 in the mechanics of deformation and fracture of rubber and plastics. At age 17, Gent worked as a research assistant at the John Bull Rubber Co. He served in the British Army from 1947 to 1949 before becoming a research physicist and later a principal physicist at the TARRC, British Rubber Producer's Research Association. In 1961, Gent joined the faculty of the University of Akron, where he spent almost half a century. He was an assistant director of the Institute of Polymer Science and dean of graduate studies and research in addition to being a researcher and professor. Gent discovered the Payne effect, Fletcher-Gent effect and developed the Gent (hyperelastic model), Gent hyperelastic model. He was involved in the investigation of the O-ring failure in the space shuttle Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, ''Challenger'' disaster. Gent also published more than 200 works about Rubber, rubber science. He was the editor and author of the textbook ''Engineering with Rubber'' and studied the conditions that cause Cavitation (elastomers), cavitation in rubber under the action of hydrostatic Ultimate tensile strength, tensile loading. His most frequently cited work proposed a Gent hyperelastic model, hyperelastic stress-strain law for rubber. Gent received the 1975 Bingham Medal and the Colwyn Medal of the Plastics and Rubber Institute from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) in 1978 and the George S. Whitby teaching award in 1987. Gent also received the Charles Goodyear Medal from the ACS Rubber Division in 1990. He died on 20 September 2012 at the age of 85.

External links

Photograph of Gent

1979 Interview with Alan Gent
* Gent starred in
University of Akron production
of ''Mr Tompkins, The Adventures of Mr. Tompkins''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gent, Alan Neville 1927 births 2012 deaths Scientists from Leicester University of Akron faculty British Army soldiers British polymer scientists and engineers Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Presidents of the Society of Rheology Scientists from Ohio