George and Josephine Butler Polymer Research Laboratory at the University of Florida

Dr. George Butler

Research in polymer chemistry and engineering started in 1946 when Professor George Butler moved to Gainesville to begin a teaching career here. As a consequence, this laboratory, which is more than 60 years old now, is amongst the oldest in the United States to conduct research in polymer science within a department of chemistry. It started as a relatively small group of researchers and remained that way until 1970 when a physical polymer chemist, Thieo Hogen Esch, was brought to the Department. Ken Dill joined in the early 1980’s, later moving to the University of California/San Francisco where he is today.