Charles F. Curtiss - 1987 Bingham Medalist

Theoretical and Physical Chemist

Awarded Bingham Medal 1987

Charles (Chuck) F. Curtiss was born on April 4, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees, obtaining his B.S. in Chemistry in 1942 and his Ph.D. in 1948 after working under J. G. Hirschfelder. He was offered a faculty position immediately following graduation and worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the entirety of his forty-one-year career. He was promoted from Instructor to Professor of Chemistry in 1960 and was honored as a Professor Emeritus in 1989. Besides his work in the physics and chemistry departments, Curtiss is closely associated with the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry and the Rheology Research Center on the Wisconsin campus. Additionally, after graduating in 1942, Curtiss served in civilian theoretical chemistry research for the Geophysical Laboratory during World War II. Based in Washington DC, and working originally with his chemistry teacher from UW, Prof. Joe Hirschfelder (who eventually worked on the Manhattan Project), he focused on the theoretical description of temperature profiles in munition barrels and recoilless rifle design.

Curtiss is well-known for his contributions to theoretical physical chemistry, principally in the area of the statistical mechanics and molecular dynamics of small gas molecules. The classic text, Molecular Theory of Gases and Liquids , which he coauthored with J. G. Hirschfelder and R. B. Bird in 1954, still represents the landmark work for those concerned with molecular transport phenomena. In the early 1970’s, his background in the kinetic theory of polyatomic gases led him to consider its analogies to the dynamics of polymer molecules, first in dilute solution, then in concentrated solutions and the melt. This insight enabled him to formulate a generalized phase-space kinetic theory of polymeric liquids which is regarded as the most complete and general description of macromolecular rheology ever produced. Virtually all earlier theories of polymer dynamics, including those of Kramers, Rouse, Zimm, Kirkwood and Doi-Edwards, are included as special cases of this generalized kinetic theory. The theory provides a formalism through which constitutive equations can be obtained rigorously from assumptions made in constructing the molecular model, which in turn allows expressions to be developed for viscometric material properties such as the shear viscosity, elongational viscosity and normal stress differences. His many years of work in this field were done in close collaboration with R. B. Bird. The combination of Bird’s rheological pragmatism and Curtiss’ theoretical molecular physics rigor produced a workable generalized theory which culminated in the monumentally successful text Dynamics of Polymer Liquids, Volume II, Kinetic Theory (coauthored with R. C. Armstrong and O. Hassager), which was originally published in 1977, before being revised and expanded in a Second Edition published in 1987.

Curtiss was awarded the Bingham Medal in 1987 because he “provided polymer rheologists with a special gift” through his kinetic theory of polymer liquids. (Rheology Bulletin 1987)

Sources

Bird, R. Byron; Harriman, John E.; Weinhold, Frank A. Charles F. Curtiss 1921-2007 . Rheology Bulletin 2008, 77(2), 14. Also, Box 8, Folder 02. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.

Professor Chuck Curtiss Dies at Age 86 . Department of Chemistry, Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison (accessed Jul 25, 2019).

Transcript of an Oral History Interview with Charles F. Curtiss, 2004 . Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center.

Note: This biography is an adaptation of the following articles previously published by The Society of Rheology.

1987 Bingham Medalist. Rheology Bulletin 1987, 56(2) . Also, Box 6, Folder 49. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740.

Photo Credit

AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.