Eby, Professor Ronald K. Award In Polymer Science
The Professor Ronald K. Eby Award in Polymer Science is presented annually to the student with the highest GPA in the first-year core courses in the Department of Polymer Science, unless that student receives the Morton Award. In that case, the Eby Award would go to the student with the second-highest GPA. The faculty of the Department of Polymer Science makes selection of each year's Eby Award recipient. The initial award will be $1,000 and shall be revised in increments of $100 as the endowment grows. If the endowment grows sufficiently, more awards of equal value shall be presented.
The College, Elsevier Science, publisher of the journal Polymer, and a committee of friends and colleagues organized 20-20 Vision in Polymer Science-the Next Two Decades to honor Professor Ronald K. Eby on his 70th birthday and recognize his significant scientific contributions in broad areas of polymer science. Dr. Eby, the inaugural Robert C. Musson Professor of Polymer Science, is internationally known for his research on advanced materials. Author of 170 publications, Dr. Eby served six years as professor of materials science and engineering at The Johns Hopkins University before assuming his duties at The University of Akron. While at The University of Akron, Dr. Eby further distinguished himself as the holder of the Musson Chair and as an Ohio Eminent Scholar and especially as a mentor to developing polymer scientists.
He worked for 21 years at the National Bureau of Standards and for much of that time was chief of the Polymers Division. He managed a program of 120 full-time, part-time, and guest workers, investigating the concepts and standards for the performance, processing, structure, and properties of polymeric materials. He has conducted research on the structure, morphology, and properties of plastics, elastomers, silks, laminates, composites, and advanced fibers using methods such as physical acoustics, molecular modeling, nondestructive evaluation, microscopy, X-ray scattering, and thermal analysis.
Dr. Eby has received the prestigious Alexander Von Humboldt Senior Award that involves one year of research at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Science in Mainz, Germany. He also has received the Society of Plastics Engineers International Research Award. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Acoustical Society of America, the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the North American Thermal Analysis Society.
He has held a wide variety of offices in technical organizations. They include: chair of the American Chemical Society's Division of Polymer Chemistry (1987); chair of the American Physical Society's Division of High Polymer Physics (1972-73); and chair of the American Society for Testing and Materials' Committee D-20 on Plastics (1978-80 and 1982-83). He also served as chair of the American Physical Society's selection committee for the High Polymer Physics Prize (1972); as a member of the Society's council; and as chair of the selection committee for the Society of Plastics Engineers' Research Award (1981-89). He was a signer of the document creating the Pacific Polymer Federation and a co-author of the document that led to the establishment of KIST in Korea.
Dr. Eby served 23 years as the U.S. editor of Polymer for the Americans and serves on the editorial boards of Polymer Engineering and Science, the Journal for Advanced Materials, the Annual Review of Materials Science, and A Physics Vade Mecum. He has served as associate editor of the Review of Scientific Instruments and Materials Science & Engineering. He was editor of Durability of Macromolecular Materials, co-editor of The Materials Science & Engineering of Rigid-Rod Polymers, and co-editor of High Performance Polymers & Polymer Matrix Composites.
He has served as a consultant for numerous industries, government agencies, and other organizations. He also has received research funding from such diverse organizations as the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Air Force and Navy, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, IBM, the National Science Foundation, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, the National Roofing Contractors Association and the Electric Power Research Institute, and EPIC.
Dr. Eby holds a bachelor's degree in physics from Lafayette College and master's and doctoral degrees in physics from Brown University.