Rheology is the study of the flow of matter, primarily in a fluid state, but also as "soft solids" or solids under conditions in which they respond with plastic flow rather than deforming elastically in response to an applied force. Rheology is a branch of physics, and it is the science that deals with the deformation and flow of materials, both solids and liquids.
David A. Weitz is a Canadian/American physicist and Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics & Applied Physics and professor of Systems Biology at Harvard University. He is the co-director of the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard, co-director of the Harvard Kavli Institute for Bionano Science & Technology, and director of the Harvard Materials Research Science & Engineering Center. He is best known for his work in the areas of diffusing-wave spectroscopy, microrheology, microfluidics, rheology, fluid mechanics, interface and colloid science, colloid chemistry, biophysics, complex fluids, soft condensed matter physics, phase transitions, the study of glass and amorphous solids, liquid crystals, self-assembly, surface-enhanced light scattering, and diffusion-limited aggregation. More recently, his laboratory has developed Force spectrum microscopy, which is capable of measuring random intracellular forces. As of July 2013, he has a Hirsch index of 173.
Leslie Gary Leal is the Warren & Katharine Schlinger Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is known for his research work in the dynamics of complex fluids.
Robert Byron Bird was an American chemical engineer and professor emeritus in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was known for his research in transport phenomena of non-Newtonian fluids, including fluid dynamics of polymers, polymer kinetic theory, and rheology. He, along with Warren E. Stewart and Edwin N. Lightfoot, was an author of the classic textbook Transport Phenomena. Bird was a recipient of the National Medal of Science in 1987.
Michael Elmhirst Cates is a British physicist. He is the 19th Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge and has held this position since 1 July 2015. He was previously Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and has held a Royal Society Research Professorship since 2007.
John Francis Brady is an American chemical engineer and the Chevron Professor of Chemical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. He is a fluid mechanician and creator of the Stokesian dynamics method for simulating suspensions of spheres and ellipsoids in low Reynolds number flows. He is an elected fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Society of Rheology, as well as a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Howard Brenner was a professor emeritus of chemical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research profoundly influenced the field of fluid dynamics, and his research contribution to fundamental principles of fluid dynamics has been deeply honored. His first textbook, Low Reynolds Number Hydrodynamics, earned him a reputation lasting several decades. His profession though fundamental research is on microfluidics, complex liquids, interfacial transport process, emulsion rheology, and multiphase flows.
Viswanathan Kumaran is an Indian chemical engineer, rheologist and a professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Science. He is known for his studies on stability of flow past flexible surfaces and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2000. A recipient of the TWAS Prize in 2014 and the Infosys Prize 2016 in the Engineering and Computer Science category, Kumaran was listed in the Asian Scientist 100, a list of top 100 scientists from Asia, by the Asian Scientist magazine.
Ashish Kishore Lele is an Indian chemical engineer, rheologist and the Director of the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. He is known for his researches on micro and mesostructure of polymers and is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2006. He received the Infosys Prize in 2012.
Yogesh Moreshwar Joshi is an Indian chemical engineer, rheologist and the Pandit Girish & Sushma Rani Pathak Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He is known for his studies on metastable soft matter and is an elected fellow of the Society of Rheology, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. In 2015, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded Joshi the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for his contributions to Engineering Sciences.
Alan Jeffrey Giacomin is a professor of chemical engineering at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, and cross-appointed in the Department of Mechanical & Materials Engineering, and of Physics, Engineering Physics, and Astronomy. He has been editor-in-chief of Physics of Fluids since 2016. He holds the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Rheology from the Canadian government's Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Since 2017, Giacomin has been President of the Canadian Society of Rheology.
Gareth Huw McKinley is Professor of Teaching Innovation in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Horst Henning Winter is a German American chemical engineer, educator and researcher. He is a distinguished professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and was the executive editor of Rheologica Acta from 1989 to 2016, where he has served as honorary editor since 2017.
Interfacial rheology is a branch of rheology that studies the flow of matter at the interface between a gas and a liquid or at the interface between two immiscible liquids. The measurement is done while having surfactants, nanoparticles or other surface active compounds present at the interface. Unlike in bulk rheology, the deformation of the bulk phase is not of interest in interfacial rheology and its effect is aimed to be minimized. Instead, the flow of the surface active compounds is of interest.
Julia A. Kornfield is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. A world expert in polymer science, Kornfield's research encompasses the development of mega-supramolecular systems for fuel additives and intraocular lenses, as well as the influence of flow on polymer chains.
Ronald G. Larson is George G. Brown Professor of Chemical Engineering and Alfred H. White Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan, where he holds joint appointments in Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. He is internationally recognized for his research contributions to the fields of polymer physics and complex fluid rheology, especially in the development of theory and computational simulations. Notably, Larson and collaborators discovered new types of viscoelastic instabilities for polymer molecules and developed predictive theories for their flow behavior. He has written numerous scientific papers and two books on these subjects, including a 1998 textbook, “The Structure and Rheology of Complex Fluids”.
Surita Bhatia is an American chemist who is Professor and Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs at Stony Brook University. Her work considers the structure of soft materials, including polymeric hydrogels and colloidal glasses. She was elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the Society of Rheology in 2020.
Morton Mace Denn is an Albert Einstein Professor of Science and Engineering Emeritus at the City College of New York (CCNY). He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Lynn Walker is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research considers the rheology of complex fluids and how nanostructure impacts the behavior of complex systems. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Society of Rheology, and the American Physical Society.
Shelley Lynn Anna is an American chemical engineer and experimental fluid dynamics researcher who studies droplets, multiphase flow, and the effects of surfactants in microfluidics, the rheology of extensional and interfacial flows, and microscale transport. She is a professor of chemical engineering and associate dean for faculty and graduate affairs and strategic initiatives in the Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering.
