Research award for Emeritus Professor

28 Aug 2012

Professor Robert Stepto, Emeritus Professor in Polymer Science in the School of Materials, has received the Paul J Flory Polymer Research Prize in recognition of his distinguished career.

Prof Bob Stepto (left) receives the prize from Prof Goerg H Michler

Professor Stepto received the prestigious prize at the 20th POLYCHAR World Forum on Advanced Materials in Dubrovnik in March 2012. The prize citation referred specifically to his “work on thermoplastics including thermoplastic starch materials”, but the award also represents international recognition of his outstanding contributions during a lifetime of research at Manchester.

Bob Stepto was a founder member of the original Polymer Science and Technology Group established at UMIST in the early 1960’s, which is now an integral part of the School of Materials. Early in his career, he met and was inspired by Paul J Flory, the 1974 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry and arguably the most influential polymer scientist of the 20th century.

Bob soon established world-renowned research producing work that accounted for important molecular phenomena overlooked by Flory and others in the establishment of earlier classical theories.

There has also been international recognition, throughout his career and into retirement, for his major involvement in many learned and professional societies, most notably as former President of the IUPAC Polymer Division and former Chairman of the Polymer Networks Group.

Since his retirement in 2002, Professor Stepto has continued his research in close collaboration with Ian Ward FRS, Emeritus Professor of Polymer Physics at the University of Leeds, producing seminal work on the modeling modelling of elastic properties of polymer networks.

Professor Stepto said: “The prize has personal significance for me because Paul Flory inspired me to undertake my initial research in the 1960’s on the statistical aspects of polymer networks and gelation, thus establishing a lifelong association. It is also notable for Manchester because it recognizes the University’s consequent role in the international development of polymer science.”