Herman Francis Mark Photograph

Herman Francis Mark was an Austrian-American chemist best known for his contributions to the research and academic study of polymer science. Born in Vienna, Austria on May 3, 1895, Mark’s father was a Jewish man who converted to the Lutheran Church upon marriage to Mark’s mother. Mark briefly attended the University of Vienna before the outbreak of World War I interrupted his studies. He served as an Officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, where he was highly decorated. After the war, Mark returned to the University of Vienna, where he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1921. In 1922, Mark moved to Berlin and began working for the Kaiser Wilhem Institute for Fiber Research. He began experimenting with x-ray diffraction and how it can be used to study the molecular structures of fibers such as silk and wool.

With the rise of Nazism in the early 1930s, Mark and his family returned to Austria, where he developed the first academic curriculum for the study of polymer science at the University of Vienna. After the annexation of Austria, he and his family fled to Switzerland, until he gained employment in Canada and then eventually the United States. Mark began working as a professor at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, eventually retiring as their director in 1964. While at the Polytechnic Institute, Mark developed their polymer program and established the first undergraduate polymer program in the U.S., as well as the first polymer research facility in 1946.

Mark was the recipient of numerous awards over the course of his career, including the National Medal of Science in 1976. Herman Francis Mark died on April 6, 1992, in Austin, Texas.