BRPRA

The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre, originally known as the British Rubber Producers' Research Association, carries out research into rubber and is funded by the Malaysian government.

The British Rubber Producers Research Association was formed as a scientific research organization in 1938 'to understand rubber and in pursuit of this aim to mount a programme of fundamental research', since at that time the technology was almost entirely empirical. It carried out fundamental work on rubber, which included the more general polymer science and the physics and mathematics of rheology and in addition contributed to early work on electronic computers.

Prominent in the push for greater rubber research and the establishment of the association was Sir Eric Miller, who became chairman of the BRPRA.

In 1939 it obtained its first premises in Welwyn Garden City. It was largely funded by a levy on British-owned companies with plantations in Malaya and Ceylon.

Its Director of Research from 1938 to 1947 was John Wilson. His:

unconventional qualities, combined as they were with super-abundant energy and remarkable visionary zeal, proved their value as he built up the BRPRA in a difficult period and made it a world-renowned research unit within a decade or so. He chose his staff on trusted recommendation or by intuition, and thus assembled a group which radically advanced the science of rubber [at the BRRA], sowed seeds that have produced substantial commercial fruits, and which was to become the source of distinguished alumni in high academic and industrial posts in this country, America and elsewhere ... [Wilson's] stimulating ebullience, his concern with work not red tape, and his abiding principle to support and fight to the limit for his staff outside the laboratories (however much he might assail them inside) engendered immense loyalty and a wonderful team spirit.

He resigned to become Director of the newly formed British Rayon Research Association. A number of staff followed him, including LRG Treloar.

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