Manfred Wagner

Manfred Hermann Wagner (born 1948) is the author of Wagner model and the molecular stress function theory for polymer rheology. He is a Professor for Polymer engineering and Polymer physics at the Technical University of Berlin.

Manfred Wagner
Born	Manfred Hermann Wagner 1948 (age 74–75) Stuttgart
Alma mater	University of Stuttgart
Known for	Wagner model
Scientific career
Fields	Chemical engineering
Institutions	Technical University of Berlin University of Stuttgart

Manfred was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1948. He obtained his PhD in Chemical engineering at the Institute for Polymer Processing of Stuttgart University. He worked as a post-doc in Polymer Physics under Joachim Meissner at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zurich, and in the Plastic industry, then he returned to Stuttgart University in 1988 as Professor for Fluid Dynamics and Rheology. In 1998–1999, he was Dean of the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Cybernetics of Stuttgart University. In 1999, he moved to Technical University of Berlin.

His works include the constitutive equations for polymer melts, the application of rheology to the processing of polymers, and structure-property relationships for polymers. The focus of his work on rheology is the field of non-linear shear and elongational behavior of polymer melts and effects of polydispersity, branching and blending on melt behavior. The outstanding point associated with Wagner's work is the relative simplicity of the structural picture of the polymer chain and its respective mathematical formulation.

His latest contribution to the constitutive modeling, the MSF (Molecular Stress Function) theory, assumes a microstructure-based damping function (developed by himself in the late 1970s) that modifies the tube model of Doi and Edwards by considering the tube diameter to change with deformation. This assumption overcomes the most important disadvantage of the DE theory and produces excellent predictions consistent with the picture of the polymer chain.

He has published to date over 100 scientific papers. In 1981, he received the annual award of the British Society of Rheology . The Institute of Materials, London, awarded him the Swinburne Award 2002.

Wagner was the President of the German Society of Rheology 1991–2003, and he is Secretary of the European Society of Rheology since 1996.

Until 2008 Wagner and Rolon-Garrido are studying the constitutive equations model to improve the rheology model at Polymertechnik/Polymerphysik at the TU-Berlin. Other rheological projects as polymer/additive interactions are being studied by Wagner and Marco Müller.