Education
Studied the conditions that cause cavitation in rubber under the action of hydrostatic tensile loading.
Studied the conditions that cause cavitation in rubber under the action of hydrostatic tensile loading.
Discoverer of the Fletcher-Gent effect
Originator of the Gent hyperelastic model
Investigated the O-ring failure in the space shuttle Challenger disaster. Editor/author of the textbook Engineering with Rubber
He was born in Leicester, England. He earned degrees in physics and math at the University of London, finally receiving a doctorate there in 1955 on the mechanics of deformation and fracture of rubber and plastics.
At age 17, he worked as a research assistant at the John Bulletin Rubber Company
He served in the British Army from 1947-1949. He then became a research physicist and later a principal physicist at the British Rubber Producer"s Research Association.
Gent joined the faculty of the University of Akron in 1961, spending nearly a half century at the school. Gent had been assistant director of the Institute of Polymer Science, dean of graduate studies and research, as well as a researcher and professor
He died September 20 2012 at the age of 85.