Gent, Alan N.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, exploded 73 seconds after the launch of its tenth mission (STS-51-L) resulting in the death of all seven crew members. The Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident, also known as the Rogers Commission (after its chairman William P. Rogers), was formed to investigate the disaster. The commission attributed the explosion to a sequence of events beginning with a failure in the O-rings sealing a joint on the right solid rocket booster. The failure of the O-rings was attributed to a faulty design whose performance could be too easily compromised by factors including the low temperature on the day of launch. In response to a recommendation of the Rogers Commission NASA requested that the National Research Council (NRC) form an independent panel of recognized experts to provide an overview of the activities of the solid rocket motor redesign effort. The panel was organized within the NRC under the auspices of the Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems' Committee on NASA Scientific and Technological Program Reviews. The overview committee was specifically requested to review and evaluate the certification requirements and to provide technical oversight over the design, test procedures, and manufacture and assembly of test motors. The committee was also asked to review and evaluate the test and certification program and to make recommendations to the NASA Administrator as to the adequacy of the design in meeting all requirements. The committee was named the Panel on Technical Evaluation of NASA's Redesign of the Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster. It was a part of the Committee on NASA Scientific and Technological Program Reviews, Commission on Engineering and Technical Systems. The panel met frequently with engineers and managers of NASA, its contractors, and subcontractors between June 1986 and December 1988. The panel participated in 98 meetings, technical interchanges, reviews, conferences, and site visits during this period. It also reviewed innumerable documents supplied by NASA and its principal contractors. The panel produced eight reports that were presented to the Administrator of NASA. The panel consisted of 11 members including H. Guyford Stever, Former Science & Technology Advisor to President Gerald R. Ford, Chairman; Laurence J. Adams, Martin Marietta Corporation; David Altman, United Technologies Corporation; Robert C. Anderson, TRW, Inc.; Jack L. Blumenthal, TRW, Inc.; Robert C. Forney, E. I. DuPont Nemours & Co.; Dean K. Hanink, General Motors; James W. Mar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Vice Chairman; Edward W. Price, Georgia Institute of Technology; Robert D. Watt, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center; and Alan N. Gent, Professor of Polymer Physics and Polymer Engineering at The University of Akron. Dr. Alan Neville Gent was born on November 11, 1927 in Leicester, England to Harry and Gladys Gent. He grew up in Leicester with his brother, David. Dr. Gent was educated at the University of London where he earned degrees in Physics and Mathematics before receiving his Ph.D. in Science in 1955 on the mechanics of deformation and fracture of rubber and plastics. At the age of 17 he worked as a research assistant at the John Bull Rubber Company. Gent served the British Army from 1947 to 1949 before becoming a research physicist and later a principal physicist at the British Rubber Producer's Research Association, where he initiated a program in engineering research. In 1961, Dr. Gent joined the faculty of The University of Akron as Professor of Polymer Physics in the Institute of Rubber Research, which evolved into the Maurice Morton Institute of Polymer Science and eventually became part of the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering. Just two years after joining UA, Dr. Gent was named Assistant Director of the Institute of Rubber Research. He served in this role until 1978 when he was named Dean of Graduate Studies and Research, a post he held for eight years. At that time Gent returned full time to research and teaching as the inaugural Dr. Harold A. Morton Professor of Polymer Physics and Polymer Engineering. He served in that position from 1986 until his "unofficial" retirement in 1994 although he remained active in the College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering until his passing. Dr. Gent was an outstanding educator in both the laboratory and the classroom. During his lengthy 33-year career with UA he directed to completion more than 40 Ph.D. dissertations and 35 M.S. theses. Dr. Gent spent more than half a century as a pioneer in his field. Internationally known, he was widely regarded as the foremost expert on the fracture mechanics of rubber and plastics. His research yielded significant contributions to the world's understanding of the physics of adhesion and the fracture of rubbery, crystalline glassy polymers, and had the potential of impacting nearly every rubber or plastic product developed today. In addition to the 11-member National Research Council panel that oversaw the redesign of the space shuttle's solid-fuel rockets in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, Dr. Gent served as Consultant and Scientific Advisor to The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's Research Division from 1964 to 2002. Dr. Gent's work in the fields of polymer science and rheology have been recognized around the world by the many awards he received, including the Polymer Physics Prize of the American Physical Society, the Mobay Award of the Plastics Industry, the Bingham Medal of the Society of Rheology, the Colwyn Award of the Society of Plastics Engineers, the 3M Award in Adhesion Science of the Adhesion Society, NASA Public Service Medal, the Whitby Award of the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society, the Charles Goodyear Medal of the Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society, the Tire Technology Lifetime Achievement Award and the Tire Technology International Lifetime Achievement Award. In 1991, he was elected as a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

During his distinguished career, Gent published more than 200 papers and book chapters on the mechanical properties of rubber and plastics and edited a book titled Engineering with Rubber: How to Design Rubber Components (New York: Hanser Publishers, 1992). A co-holder of two British patents and one U.S. patent, he frequently was invited to address universities, corporations, and professional society meetings around the world and served as a visiting professor at Queen Mary College at the University of London, McGill University in Canada, and the University of Minnesota. Gent also presided over three national scientific societies (The High-Polymer Physics Division of the American Physical Society, The Society of Rheology, and The Adhesion Society) and chaired four Gordon Research Conferences dealing with Elastomers, Cellular Materials, Adhesion and Composites. In 1991 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. In honor of his international recognition, his noteworthy achievements in education and research and his distinguished service to The University of Akron, the Board of Trustees change the name of the Ohio Research Scholar Professor position to the "Alan N. Gent Ohio Research Scholar Professor of Polymers."

Dr. Alan N. Gent passed away on September 20, 2012 at the age of 84. He was married twice, first to Jean Gent, and then to Ginger Lee. He had three sons, Martin, Michael, and Andrew in addition to 15 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.