Matthew Liberatore - Fellow, Elected 2026

Professor Matthew Liberatore has been a contributor to the scholarship of rheology as well as service to the Society of Rheology (SOR) for many years. His rheology research broadly covers polymer, colloid, surfactant, and energy-related materials. He has contributed to topics including biomass materials, entangled polyelectrolytes, flow assurance and transport of oils and emulsions, shear thickening in colloidal slurries, and mechanical characterization of polymer membranes. Empowering this spectrum of projects are a series of unique experimental capabilities. His laboratory has significantly contributed to the areas of high-pressure rheology, controlling humidity and water content during mechanical characterization and dynamic mechanical analysis, rheo-small angle light scattering, and high-shear rheology reaching over 100,000 s-1 relevant in many industrial applications. His publications are well cited, and his work has been translated to industry.

He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He began is work in rheology as a graduate student under the direction of Anthony McHugh followed by postdoctoral studies under the advisement of Norman Wagner at the University of Delaware. His independent positions have included 10 years as a faculty member at the Colorado School of Mines followed by being a Professor at the University of Toledo.

During all of these positions, mentoring students and leadership in the Society of Rheology has been central to Professor Liberatore’s career. He has mentored dozens of graduate and undergraduate students in the field of rheology, and these students have earned many awards, including two poster awards at SOR meetings. He has served as a session chair many times at SOR meetings, organized and judged the poster session, and was an inaugural member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of SOR. In this last role, he helped organize the first Rheology Research Symposium exclusively for students, gave a talk as part of the symposium about giving great scientific presentations, and mentored several students in the cohort.

Finally, Professor Liberatore served as the Local Arrangements Chair for the Society of Rheology Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado in October 2017. These five years of effort culminated in the 89th Society of Rheology Annual Meeting with over 400 participants, more than 100 individual events and sessions, and a budget with a small surplus. Professor Liberatore managed over 1,100 emails related to the meeting is one of his lasting memories of this experience.