Image courtesy of Robert Hirschler
Fred Wallace Billmeyer, Jr., was an American chemist who contributed through industrial research and academia to the developing fields of polymer chemistry and color science during the second half of the twentieth century.
Billmeyer was born on August 24, 1919, in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In 1941, he received a B.S. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Then he received a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Cornell University in 1945, after studying the measurement of molecular weights by light scattering under Nobel Laureate Peter Debye.
His professional career can be divided into two major parts, focusing first on industry and then on education. Upon graduation, he joined the Plastics Department of E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Delaware, where he remained for twenty years. There he worked on various aspects of polymers. Instinctively an educator, he published Textbook in Polymer Chemistry (1957) and Textbook in Polymer Science (1962), which went through three editions and was also published in Japanese. These books helped to create the academic discipline of polymer science. He served as a visiting professor in Chemical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the 1960–1961 academic years. Billmeyer increasingly became involved with the growing field of color science. At the University of Delaware, he supervised his first graduate color science student, Joseph Atkins, whose 1964 Ph.D. thesis was on the Absorption and Scattering of Light in Turbid Media.
In 1964, he retired from DuPont to join academia full time as a Professor of Analytical Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, New York. At RPI, he taught and directed research in both polymer and color science and directed the Rensselaer Color Measurement Laboratory until he became Professor Emeritus in 1984. During his time at RPI, he not only taught and mentored undergraduate and graduate students, but also, with Max Saltzman, initiated summer courses in color science for people from the industry. His influence on the field of color science was extended throughout the USA by over 1000 people from diverse fields attending these summer programs.
87.1 Principles of Color Technology
To extend his commitment to education, he undertook two other major projects while at RPI. In 1966, Billmeyer continued his collaboration with Saltzman, publishing Principles of Color Technology. Their two editions of this textbook became widely acclaimed throughout the industrial world as the primary introduction to color science. A third edition entitled Billmeyer and Saltzman’s Principles of Color Technology (published in 2000) by Roy Berns is still widely read. Also with Richard Kelly in 1975, he published Entering Industry: A Guide for Young Professionals.
The second project was creation of an academic journal for color science. After supporting two unsuccessful attempts at journals of color engineering and science, in 1976, he initiated the journal Color Research and Application. Billmeyer was the founding editor and served in that position until 1986. His approach of involving national color organizations, beginning with the Canadian Society for Color, the US Inter-Society Color Council, and the Colour Group (Great Britain) and later others throughout the world, has contributed to the success of this English-language journal published by John Wiley & Sons as it continues to be published.
Many of Billmeyer’s scientific contributions throughout the years fall into the category of light scattering and the application of turbid medium theory to the formulation and shading of colored materials. Beginning with the basic theory of Beer’s law, he programmed a digital computer to calculate the concentrations required to produce a given transparent color by mixing soluble dyes [1]. Next, with Beasley and Atkins, he expanded two-flux Kubelka–Munk theory to a four-flux turbid medium theory [2], which became known as the BAB Theory for colorant formulation. From there, he continued development of the BAB to apply particularly to paint systems [3] and expanded that further to coatings with goniometric characteristics [4, 5]. He further developed practices for determining the optical properties needed to be used in the turbid medium theory and multi-flux theory [6–9].
Billmeyer was a versatile and prolific communicator; his contributions were not limited to turbid medium theory. Two other areas that should be mentioned here are the characterization of fluorescent materials [10, 11] and use of color difference equations in manufacturing [12]. His involvement within the many professional organizations and collaboration with other scientists throughout the world influenced most areas of color science. In particular, his more than 350 published articles discussed polymer characterization and diverse aspects of color. His 13 books were focused on teaching in clear, concise language the scientific principles necessary for the industrial use of polymers and color to enhance our lives.