James White

Who was James White?

James Lindsay White. White was a key figure in defining the field of polymer engineering. He founded two polymer engineering programs, one at the University of Tennessee and the other at the University of Akron. He also founded the International Polymer Processing Society and two scholarly journals: the Journal of Polymer Engineering and the International Polymer Processing Journal. He authored the textbook Rubber Processing, which was long-popular among engineers. White published more than 500 papers and 8 books based on his studies of flow in internal mixers, pin barrel extruders, and twin screw extruders with and without simultaneous chemical reactions.

He received the Charles Goodyear Medal in 2009, for “fundamental understanding of rheology and mathematical modeling of unfilled and filled rubbers and simulations of flow in batch and continuous mixing machines.” He received the Bingham Medal in 1981.