Modern Applications of Flory's "Statistical Mechanics of Chain Molecules"

Alan E. Tonelli received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1964 and a PhD in Polymer Chemistry from Stanford University in 1968. At Stanford, he was supervised by the late Nobelist Professor Paul J. Flory. He was a member of the Polymer Chemistry Research Department of AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, for 23 years.

In 1991 he joined the Textile Engineering, Chemistry, & Science Department and the Fiber & Polymer Science Program in the College of Textiles at North Carolina State University. He is currently the INVISTA Professor of Fiber & Polymer Chemistry there. For more than 50 years, his research has dealt with the microstructures, conformations, and material behaviors and properties of polymers and their materials.



Gary Patterson received a BS in Chemistry from Harvey Mudd College in 1968 and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Stanford University in 1972. He also worked with Paul J. Flory. He was a member of the Chemical Physics Department of AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1972-1984.He has been Professor of Chemical Physics and Polymer Science at Carnegie Mellon University since then.

He received the National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research in 1981 in recognition of his "contributions to polymer science, particularly in the application of light scattering measurements in the understanding of polymer chain dynamics." He has published many books including Physical Chemistry of Macromolecules (2007), A Prehistory of Polymer Science (2012), Polymer Science from 1935-1953: Consolidating the Paradigm (2014), Paul John Flory: A
Life of Science and Friends (2016), Preceptors in Chemistry (2018), and Chemistry in 17th Century New England (2020).