Andrew Keller facts for kids

Andrew Keller was a very important British scientist. He studied polymers, which are like long chains of tiny building blocks. He was born in Hungary in 1925 and later became a British citizen.

Andrew Keller was a professor at the University of Bristol. He was known for his amazing discoveries about how polymers crystallize. This means how they form organized, solid structures. His work helped us understand many materials we use every day.

Andrew Keller's Life Story

Andrew Keller was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1925. He was the only child in his family. He started studying chemistry at the University of Budapest in 1943. He finished his first degree with high honors in 1947.

He began working on his PhD, which is a very advanced degree. But he had to leave Hungary in 1948 because of political problems. He moved to England, leaving his unfinished studies behind.

Starting Work in England

In England, Andrew Keller got a job at Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in Manchester. He worked in the Polymers Division. His job was to figure out how the physical shape of polymers affects how they crystallize.

In 1955, he moved to the University of Bristol. He became a research assistant there. He led a team that was funded by the government. Here, he continued to develop his ideas about how polymers crystallize. He earned his PhD in 1958. Around this time, in 1954 or 1955, he also became a British citizen.

Big Discovery: Chain Folding

A very important part of his work at Bristol was a discovery he made in 1957. He found out about something called chain folding in polymer crystals. Imagine a very long string. Instead of lying flat, it folds up neatly, like a zig-zag. This is what polymer chains do when they crystallize.

At first, not everyone believed his discovery. There were many discussions and debates among scientists for years. A big meeting happened in Cambridge in 1979. After this meeting, scientists started to agree with his ideas. They then focused on how perfectly the chains folded in different materials.

Andrew Keller retired from his work in 1991. A special conference was held at Bristol to celebrate his achievements in polymer physics.

His Family Life

Andrew Keller met his wife, Eva Bulhack, in England. She was from Romania. They got married in 1951. They had two children, a son named Peter and a daughter named Nicola.

Andrew Keller passed away on February 7, 1999. He had a heart attack while on a skiing holiday in Switzerland.

Awards and Honors

Andrew Keller received many important awards for his scientific work. These awards show how much his discoveries helped the world of science.

• 1964 High Polymer Physics Prize, American Physical Society
• 1969 Prize of Materials Science Club of Great Britain
• 1972 Fellow of The Royal Society (This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK)
• 1975 Swinburne Medal of the Plastics and Rubber Institute, London
• 1980 Centennial Scholar and Medal, Case Institute of Technology, Cleveland, Ohio
• 1981 Clyde Medal of the University of Utah
• 1983 Max Born Medal and Prize
• 1983 Fraser Price Memorial Award, University of Massachusetts
• 1984 Rumford Medal of The Royal Society
• 1984 Medal of the Collège de France, Paris
• 1994 Elected member of the Academia Europaea
• 1998 Elected External Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences