Rubber Division to honor CWRU professor as Charles Goodyear Medalist

CLEVELAND—The ACS Rubber Division has chosen a professor from Case Western Reserve University to receive its Charles Goodyear Medal, the highest honor given out by the technical organization.

The selection of Eric Baer was announced Oct. 10 during the Rubber Division's International Elastomer Conference in Cleveland. He will receive the honor during the division's spring technical meeting next May in Indianapolis.

Baer is the director of the Center for Layered Polymeric Systems, the Herbert Henry Dow Professor of Science and Engineering, and a professor in the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at CWRU.

His research interests include irreversible microdeformation mechanisms; pressure effects on morphology and mechanical properties; relationships between hierarchical structure and mechanical function; mechanical properties of soft connective tissue; polymer composites and blends; polymerization crystallization on crystalline surfaces; viscoelastic properties of polymer melts; damage and fracture analysis of polymers; and micro- and nanolayered composites.

He was the editor of the Journal of Applied Polymer Science from 1988-2011, has edited five books and has published more than 600 research papers.

Baer received a master's in chemistry from Johns Hopkins University in 1953, and earned a doctorate in engineering four years later from Johns Hopkins. He received an "honoris causa" doctor of sciences from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1993; was honored as a distinguished university professor from Case Western in 2011; and was awarded an honorary professorship in 2012 from the Beijing University for Chemical Technology.

After receiving his doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1957, Baer worked in DuPont's Polychemicals Department from 1957-60.

Since then, most of his time has been spent in academia, starting as an assistant professor of chemical engineering from 1960-62. He moved from there to the Case Institute of Technology—one of the two schools merged to create Case Western in 1967.

His first stint as the Herbert Henry Dow Professor was from 1989 to 2004. He has held that seat since 2011. From 2004 to 2010 he was the Leonard Case Jr. Professor of Macromolecular Science.

His list of awards are extensive. Among others, they include: the American Chemical Society's Paul J. Flory Education Award in 1996; induction into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2000; 2015 recipient of the Case School of Engineering Research Award for Senior Faculty; and the 2016 James L. White Innovation Award of the Polymer Processing Society.

The Charles Goodyear Medal is "to perpetuate the memory of Charles Goodyear as the discoverer of the vulcanization of rubber by honoring individuals for outstanding invention, innovation or development which has resulted in a significant change or contribution to the nature of the rubber industry."