Frank Erwin Karasz, 92, Silvio O. Conte Professor Emeritus of Polymer Science and Engineering (PSE) in the College of Natural Sciences, died in Amherst on June 21. 

A pioneering polymer scientist, Karasz came to UMass Amherst in 1967 and helped shape the university’s PSE department during its formative years.

Having made lasting contributions to the field of polymer science for six decades through his research, scholarship, collaborations and mentorship, he remained an active presence in the field long after his formal retirement in 2004.

A complete remembrance published by the UMass PSE department can be found below and on the PSE website.
 

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Professor Frank Erwin Karasz, Silvio O. Conte Professor Emeritus of Polymer Science and Engineering, died in Amherst on June 21, 2026. Karasz was born on July 23, 1933, in Vienna, Austria. He received a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Imperial College London in 1954 and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Washington in 1957. He was later awarded a D.Sc. by the University of London in 1972. His interests in polymers were sparked by a post-doctoral stint at the University of Oregon with Terrell Hill, and he subsequently pursued these interests at the National Physical Laboratory near London, where he studied folded single chain crystals in a theory collaboration with Nobel Prize winner John Pople.  Shortly afterward, Karasz accepted a position at the General Electric Research Laboratory in Schenectady, where he turned his attention to order-disorder transitions in synthetic polypeptides, a problem pursued in conjunction with his colleague James O’Reilly.

Karasz left G.E. for UMass Amherst in 1967, just as PSE was starting as a program. Five years later, he and the late Roger Porter established an NSF-funded, multi-investigator Materials Research Laboratory, a major coup within the U.S. academic materials community that led in 1974 to the transformation of PSE from a program to a department.  He served as MRL co-director until 1985.  Karasz’ best known early UMass research involved polymer blends and alloys, a topical area for which he and his close collaborators, Prof. William MacKnight (PSE) and Gerrit ten Brinke (Groningen, Netherlands), advanced the first predictive theory in 1982.  Karasz later began to explore the conductivity and electroluminescence of π-conjugated polymers, particularly polyacetylene and polyphenylene vinylene. This pursuit led in 1993 to the first polymer to emit blue light. 

Karasz’ scientific accomplishments are recognized by many awards, most notably, election to the National Academy of Engineering (1991), the Ford Prize in Polymer Physics from the American Physical Society (1984, shared with MacKnight), and the Herman F. Mark Medal of the Austrian Institute of Chemical Research (2002). Karasz was also elected to membership in the Serbian, Indian and Croatian Academies of Science and Art.

Over a six-decade research career, he published more than 550 papers. Following his formal retirement in 2004, he remained a frequent presence in PSE. His most recent research focused on thermoelectric materials, in collaboration with colleagues in Chemistry and Electrical Engineering—areas that continue to hold significant potential for development.

Karasz was a prominent personality throughout his decades in PSE, offering strong opinions about the polymer field and its future.  He was known for his sharp wit, humor, and sarcasm, often laced with pearls of wisdom.  His knowledge of polymers was vast, as reflected in the diversity of his research projects. A prolific grant writer and international traveler, his group sometimes exceeded thirty, with Ph.D. students, post-doctoral fellows, and visiting scientists arriving at UMass from around the globe.  His group became so large that, before the Conte center was completed, a temporary laboratory annex (‘the Karasz building’) was positioned for them on the UMass campus in front of the Goesmann Laboratory. Many projects were collaborations, and Karasz strived to keep in contact with collaborators from across his career, essentially framing a world-wide Karasz research “family” whose members he often visited. 

He was a member of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem Knights Hospitaller of Malta.

Karasz is survived by his wife, Ljiljana; daughters Alison and Hilary; stepdaughter Dragana; stepson Larry; grandchildren Emma, Olivia, and Gus; step-grandchild Lea; and great-grandchild Phoebe.