Made outstanding contributions in the field of polymer science and engineering as a creative research scientist, educator, administrator, editor, and consultant to the plastics industry.

In the field of research, Dr. Porter's efforts covered both the university and industrial sectors. He was Senior Research Associate at Chevron for 10 years and then Associate Professor and Professor at the University of Massachusetts for 25 years.

He has authored and co-authored more than 400 articles and two books, and co-edited five volumes, six chapters, and 15 reviews. He has several patents in the fields of analysis, characterization, calorimetry, and rheology of polymers. His work on the fundamentals of polyethylene fibers, now commercialized, earned him several national and international awards.

As an educator, he has directed the research activities of more than 25 graduate students who received PhD degrees. In addition to his teaching duties at the University of Massachusetts, he has held five visiting professorships and two adjunct teaching assignments throughout the world.

As an administrator at the University of Massachusetts, Dr. Porter significantly advanced the profession of polymer science. He was the first director of what has become one of the world's largest educational units dedicated to Polymer Science and Engineering. He also initiated and co-directed the National Science Foundation Materials Research Laboratory, the only such laboratory devoted to polymers.

Over the past 20 years, as Editor of Polymer Engineering and Science, he has brought this journal to world-class stature.

As a consultant to several major industrial companies, his scientific skills have aided the development of new commercial uses of plastics and have helped in the solution of practical problems.

He received his BS in chemistry (1950) from the University of California (LA) and his PHD in chemistry (1956) from the University of Washington (Seattle). He is a member of SPE, ACS, and the Society of Rheology, and is an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and the North American Thermal Analysis Society.

Dr. Porter was born in 1928 in Windom, MN. He has four children and lives in Amherst, MA with his wife Catharine.