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Vol.
33 No. 2
March-April 2011
In Memoriam: Joachim Meissner
Joachim Meissner, longtime member of the Subcommittee on Structure and Properties of Commercial Polymers, died in January 2011 after a long battle with cancer.
Prof. Meissner was born in Sehma/Annaberg in Saxony, Germany, in 1929. He graduated with a degree in physics in 1958. The same year, he joined BASF, where the melt flow behavior of polyethylene caught his attention, and he set up the famous BASF Rheology Research Laboratory. In 1974, he followed a call of the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, Switzerland. Famous is his outstanding experimental work on elongational melt rheology. His IUPAC project “Basic Parameters, Melt Rheology, Processing and End-Use Properties of Three Similar Low Density Polyethylene Samples” became what is probably the most successful project of our working party.
We will remember Joachim not only as an outstanding rheologist, but also a very active, humorous, and companionable member of our working party/subcommittee who loved to confront theoretical rheologists with unexpected (but reliable) experimental data.
His name is indelibly linked with the invention of the RME elongational rheometer, also known as the Meissner rheometer. He was a gifted experimentalist and published many important and memorable rheological experiments.
Joachim is survived by his wife, Lilo, who accompanied him to several of our meetings.
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last modified 8 March 2011.
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