History

The Canadian Society of Rheology was founded as the Canadian Rheology Group/Groupe canadien de rhéologie (CRG/GCR) in July 1982 by a group of well-known Canadian rheologists, including John Dealy, Henry Scheiber, Leszek Utracki, Pierre Carreau, among others. The first elected Chairman was John Dealy. Distinguished rheologists served as Chairmen of the CRG, including L.A. Utracki, J. Vlachopoulos, P.J. Carreau, D. DeKee, M. Dumoulin and D.F. James. The CRG was affiliated with the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada and hosted successfully the XIIth International Congress on Rheology in Quebec City, in 1996.

It was renamed the Canadian Society of Rheology/ Société Canadienne de Rhéologie (SCR) in 2001, during the presidency of the late Abdellatif Ait-Kadi. After Ait-Kadi’s tragic death, Pierre Lafleur served as president until 2004, followed by Savvas Hatzikiriakos (2004-2008) and Abdellah Ajji (2008-2012).

The Society currently has close to 100 members, which includes academics, members from industry and students/post-doctoral fellows. Its membership includes many internationally-renowned, distinguished rheologists from various institutions within Canada and abroad.

The CSR is a member of the International Committee on Rheology and is involved in events on an annual basis, including conference participation, continuing education activities and hosting workshops. One of the most important activities is the competition for the Mason award prize, in honor of Stanley G. Mason, a prominent Canadian colloid scientist, who is considered as one of the founders of the science of microrheology.