Obituary - Professor Clive B Bucknall BA MA PhD ScD FIMMM
We are saddened by the death of Professor Bucknall, a longstanding and valued member of IOM3, who was awarded the Swinburne Medal and was keenly involved in Institute journals.
Professor Clive B Bucknall BA MA PhD ScD FIMMM
23 February 1936 - 26 April 2024
Professor Clive Bucknall died at the age of 88 in the hospital on 26 April 2024. He was born in Cardiff and attended Cardiff High School before matriculating at the University of Cambridge in Gonville & Caius College in 1954. His first degree was in Natural Sciences and his PhD in Chemistry. He maintained a lifetime connection with Cambridge, attending many college events and never missing the annual Alumni Festival in the autumn.
National Service followed formal education and Clive always valued the time spent with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) as useful life training.
It was in his first industrial research appointment at BX Plastics in 1960-67 that Clive made his observations of multiple crazing in High Impact Polystyrene as being the dominant toughening mechanism in this type of polymer. This led to a lifetime commitment to the field of the rubber toughening of plastics.
The publication of 'Toughened Plastics' by Applied Science Publishers in 1977 established Clive’s global reputation in this discipline and has been translated into several languages. By this time Clive was Lecturer in the Materials Department at the then Cranfield Institute of Technology (now Cranfield University).
He enjoyed nearly two decades of academic freedom with research projects funded by both the national research councils and industry, in the UK and abroad. He was much appreciated as a consultant to many plastics companies, such as Rohm&Haas, Union Carbide, GE, DuPont, and BASF, resulting in regular trips to the US and northern Europe. An MoD contract in the late 70s widened the scope of toughening of polymers to thermosets and their blends with thermoplastics, leading to the group activities expanding into aerospace and automotive composites in the following decades. The toughening mechanisms in thermoplastics and thermoplastic blends were explored further and put on a firm quantitative footing by the development of original measurement techniques and models. Much of this work found its way into a well-received two-volume edited book, 'Polymer Blends', co-edited by D R Paul, Wiley 2000.
From his first appointment at Cranfield in 1967 Clive was progressively promoted from Lecturer to Professor, acquiring growing staff management responsibilities, which he undertook as conscientiously as he did the care for the numerous PhD and MSc students affiliated with the Polymers&Composites group. He was always generous with his time if his assistance was required, whether on academic or personal issues.
He retired from his post as Head of the Advanced Materials Department at Cranfield in 2001. As Emeritus Professor he maintained his link with the group, providing support as required while working on his own publications and book chapter contributions. He particularly enjoyed the international nature of the staff and student complement, particularly the many French students coming in from a double degree collaboration with UTC at Compiègne.
Outside of Cranfield Clive was very active within the Plastics and Rubber Institute (later incorporated into what is now the IOM3), being a longstanding member of the organising committee of the well-known ‘Churchill Conferences’ on Polymer Deformation and Fracture. He also organised several specialist conferences on the toughening of plastics and was a welcome figure at any such meetings, being in demand as chairman or indeed the after-dinner-speaker. He received the Swinburne Medal from the IOM3 in 1998. He served as an Associated Editor for the Institute journal ‘Plastics, Rubber and Composites', for several years.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) also benefitted from Clive’s experience and energy throughout his career and well into his retirement, at its international meetings and working parties. Even in recent years he still undertook leadership of an IUPAC project on ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene.
Clive and Angela raised their two sons in Cranfield village and encouraged them and many students to join their activities in woodland clearance in the area as well as bird watching. Sometime before retirement, Clive started to cultivate a new hobby, namely handcrafting exquisite musical string instruments in wood – this puzzled many of us given that he did not play…
Clive is remembered with great affection and gratitude by the many who came into direct student and colleague relationships with him over the more than 50 years of association with Cranfield University. He is survived by his wife Angela, two sons and two grandchildren. His legacy continues in the lives of thousands of polymer scientists, engineers and technologists who were taught by him or have used his books, worldwide. His commitment to the highest quality of technical writing stayed with him. The updated third edition of the well-loved textbook by McCrum, Buckley and Bucknall will be coming into all good bookshops shortly.
- Emeritus Professor Ivana K Partridge, BA, MA, PhD (Cranfield), FIMMM, University of Bristol (Cranfield 1979-2012)