Welcome to the BSR. The Society was founded as an informal British Rheologists' Club in 1940 and has as its objectives the promotion of science and dissemination of knowledge in the areas of pure and applied rheology. It has expanded greatly since then and now has over 400 members, of whom about a third are outside the U.K. and distributed widely throughout the world. For example, there are about 50 members in North America. However, it still strives to preserve the informal Club atmosphere. All offices of the Society are honorary appointments and an elected Council is the governing body. Members are drawn both from academic life and from a wide range of industrial activities. They come from many scientific disciplines including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, biology, biochemistry, materials science, engineering and medicine.
The BSR runs scientific meetings and meetings of the Non-Newtonian Club, and provides many other services to its members. Student members are invited to apply for travel awards, and each year we hold a competition for the best Ph.D. thesis in rheology, awarding the Vernon Harrison Prize. We also make an Annual Award to a distinguished rheologist and periodically award the BSR Gold Medal: the most recent recipients are Professor Mike Cates and Professor Tom McLeish, who received their medals in April 2009.
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