Chains of Opportunity: The University of Akron and the Emergence of The Polymer Age 1909–2007

3 POLYMERS, POLITICS, AND A PH.D. 1956–1959

POLYMERS, POLITICS, AND A PH.D. 1956–1959 in 1938, herman f. mark and his family were running for their lives. Mark had been a preeminent polymer chemist at IG Farben in Germany, the leading chemical company in Europe at that time, and Mark’s polymer knowledge was of tremendous value to the impending war. Mark, the son of a prominent Jewish physician, was interrogated for several days at a Gestapo prison camp; the government wanted to ensure that he had shared with them all he knew about polymers. Farben would come to play an essential role during World War II, by making the synthetic rubber most Nazi vehicles rode upon, as well as fulfilling other essential wartime chemical demands.1 Although the Nazis released Mark, 77 3 Bowles.77-188 6/17/08 2:01 PM Page 77 they took his passport and forbade him to leave the country or have contact with anyone who was Jewish. Mark knew it was time to flee. He converted all of his money into platinum wire, hung his clothes on it, and packed all his belongings in a suitcase.2 He dressed his family as tourists, put a Nazi flag on his automobile, and escaped to Switzerland . Mark later emigrated to the United States, where he founded the nation’s first polymer research institute at Brooklyn Polytechnic in 1946. He is remembered as the “father of polymer education.”3 By the mid-twentieth century, “polymer science” had become a new field whose practitioners explored the arrangement of large hydrocarbon molecules in long chains. This knowledge and its applications would transform the chemical industry. The development of synthetic rubber during the natural rubber emergency during World War II helped prove that polymers could become essential materials. The result was an “explosion of new opportunities,” as scientists developed plastics and rubber materials that could replace metallic and natural materials of all kinds.4 The emergence of a true science of polymers required a dedicated intellectual effort in basic research extending beyond the capabilities and the commercial sensibilities of industry alone—it needed an academic discipline and advanced training at the university level. Although Mark had founded the first polymer institute, his students earned their Ph.D.’s in physics or chemistry with a specialization in polymers. At the time, no institution offered a distinct polymer chemistry program granting a doctoral degree. This would change thanks to two men at the University of Akron—President Norman P. Auburn and polymer chemistry professor Maurice Morton. They had both succeeded giants at the university, with Auburn becoming president after Hezzleton Simmons in 1951 and Morton taking over from G. Stafford Whitby in 1952. Both quickly left their indelible marks on the university , establishing the Institute of Rubber Research (March 1956) and one of the first Ph.D. programs in polymer chemistry in the world (September 1956).5 While rubber research had become a vital national issue during Simmons ’s tenure (due to World War II), political events also played a role in justifying the Akron polymer program in the 1950s. Both Morton polymers, politics, and a ph.d. 78 Bowles.77-188 6/17/08 2:01 PM Page 78 and Auburn were very much aware of the past significance of rubber to national security.6 But new concerns emerged in the postwar years. Rubber, polymer, and university education took on greater political significance with the growing threat posed by the Soviet Union. Both men looked toward advanced graduate training opportunities and fundamental polymer research as important ways to strengthen the United States for future military or ideological conflicts. In an era of space and arms races, some began calling this the “education race.” Auburn, who had taken several fact-finding trips throughout the Soviet Union, said, “An important lesson to be learned from the Sputniks is that America has failed to support the various elements of higher education to the degree required. That must now be rectified.”7 He believed that Sputnik represented the end of one era and the beginning of another.8 Only through education, or as Auburn called it, an “E-bomb,” could the United States compete and survive.9 Morton referred to it as the “rubber race.” A doctoral program in polymer chemistry could not only offer one path toward winning the education race, but the fundamental basic research produced could potentially be a key component of future military efforts...