Walter Hugo Stockmayer (April 7, 1914, inRutherford, New Jersey – May 9, 2004, inNorwich, Vermont) was an internationally known chemist and university teacher. A former member of theNational Academy of Sciences, he was recognized as one of the twentieth century pioneers ofpolymer science. His specific interest was in theory and experiment for the structure and dynamics of polymer molecules, including various uses of thelight scattering method.^[1][2]

Stockmayer became interested in the mathematical aspects ofphysical chemistry as an undergraduate atMIT. ARhodes Scholarship brought him toJesus College, Oxford, where he undertook gaskinetics research with D. L. Chapman. He introduced theStockmayer potential.

Stockmayer returned to MIT forPh.D. research and pursued his study ofstatistical mechanics, which he later continued atColumbia University. He returned again to MIT in 1943 to study the theory of network formation and the gelation criterion. Stockmayer increasingly directed his attention to theories of polymer solutions, light scattering and chain dynamics.

After aGuggenheim Fellowship for the academic year 1954/1955^[3] inStrasbourg, France, he returned once more to MIT, then moved toDartmouth College in 1961. There, he worked primarily oncopolymers in dilute solution, established the journalMacromolecules, and collaborated with many Japanese scientists.

Stockmayer is mentioned as a friend of the author in the novelBreakfast of Champions byKurt Vonnegut, and is described as a distinguished pianist and a good skier.^[4] A fellowship in honor of Professor Stockmayer was established at Dartmouth College in 1994.

• Multiangle light scattering
• Percolation theory

• Marshall Fixman, Hyuk Yu, Jane E. G. Lipson (2004)."Walter Hugo Stockmayer".Physics Today.57 (12): 84.Bibcode:2004PhT....57l..84F.doi:10.1063/1.1878352.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

• In Memoriam Dr. Walter H. Stockmayer (1914-2004), Dartmouth College
• The Papers of Walter H. Stockmayer at Dartmouth College Library
• Center for Oral History."Walter H. Stockmayer".Science History Institute.
• Sturchio, Jeffrey L.; Morris, Peter J. T. (22 January 1992).Walter H. Stockmayer, Transcript of Interviews Conducted by Jeffrey L. Sturchio and Peter J. T. Morris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 25 August 1986 and 22 January 1992(PDF). Philadelphia, PA:Center for History of Chemistry.

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