Dr. Giacomin is a retired Professor of Chemical Engineering, Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy from Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada where he holds the title of Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Rheology. Born in Kingston, Professor Giacomin graduated high school on the island of Montreal. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Chemical Engineering from Queen’s University before joining the Research Division at DuPont, Canada. He then earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from McGill University under Professor John Dealy. His thesis is titled “A Sliding Plate Melt Rheometer Incorporating a Shear Stress Transducer.” Dr. Giacomin had joined the Mechanical Engineering faculty at Texas A&M University. He has been Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, where for twenty years he chaired its Rheology Research Center. He has held visiting professorships at McGill University, the University of Sherbrooke, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the Paris School of Mines, the National University of Singapore, Chung Yuan University near Taipei, Yunlin University, in southern Taiwan and Shandong University in mainland China. He is an Adjunct Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Peking University in Beijing. Dr. Giacomin married Marie, and they have a daughter Caroline, son David, and grandsons Graham, Mason and Kingston. His daughter-in-law, Courtney, a Human Resources specialist, is an alumna of the University of Nevada, Reno. David is a civil engineer, and Caroline, a chemical engineer. Giacomin speaks English, French and some Mandarin Chinese. His hobbies are Chinese characters, expert witnessing for products liability and patent litigation, and his passions are cycling and ice hockey. He is a former President of the Canadian Society of Rheology, a former President of The Society of Rheology, and was inducted Fellow of The Society of Rheology. Giacomin served as sole Editor-in-Chief of Physics of Fluids (2015-2025).
Giacomin now serves as sole Founding Editor-in-Chief of Transport Phenomena (De Gruyter Brill, Berlin).
- B.Sc. (Honours) Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, 1981
- M.Sc. Chemical Engineering, Queen's University, Kingston, Canada, 1983
- Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, 1987
Research interests
Professor Giacomin's group explores the rich and interesting relation between polymer molecular structure and rheology. Specifically, they use molecular models to derive the behavior of polymer molecules in oscillatory shear flow, analytically, and from first principles. Professor Giacomin's group also explores the role played by rheology in polymer processing or in plastics manufacturing.