Ronald Samuel Rivlin | |
---|---|
Born |
London, United Kingdom |
May 6, 1915
Died | October 4, 2005 Palo Alto, California, United States |
(aged 90)
Nationality | British-American |
Alma mater | Cambridge |
Known for | Finite strain theory |
Awards | Bingham Medal (1958) Timoshenko Medal (1987) Charles Goodyear Medal (1992) Theodore von Karman Medal (1993) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Continuum Mechanics |
Institutions | BRPRA, Brown University, Lehigh University |
Ronald Samuel Rivlin (6 May 1915 in London – 4 October 2005) was a British-American physicist, mathematician, rheologist and a noted expert on rubber.
Rivlin was born in London in 1915. He studied physics and mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge, being awarded a BA in 1937 and a ScD in 1952. He worked for the General Electric Company, then the UK Ministry of Aircraft Production, then the British Rubber Producers Research Association, to which he was recruited to at the suggestion of L. R. G. Treloar by John Wilson, over a “lavish meal” and game of pool. This included one sabbatical year at the National Bureau of Standards, USA. His post at the BRPRA was the start of his interest in rubber.
In 1953 he took up the post of Professor of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, moving to Lehigh University in 1967 to become director of the Center for the Application of Mathematics until his retirement in 1980. He married Violet LoRusso in 1948 (they had a son, John) and became an American citizen in 1955.