John “Jack” Sauer was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Rutgers University in 1934 and 1936, respectively, and was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Mathematical Physics by Cambridge University in 1942.
Jack has held a variety of positions in institutes, in industry and at universities. He was an Instructor in Mechanics at Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1940-41, an Industrial and Senior Fellow at Mellon Institute in 1941-44 and an Assistant to the President and then Director of Research and Engineering at the Elastic Stop Nut Corporation in 1944-45. From there Jack took the position as Chairman of the Engineering Mechanics Department at The Pennsylvania State University. In 1952-53 he was a Visiting Professor at the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford. Upon his return to Penn State he assumed the chairmanship of the Physics Department. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1959-60, spending the year in Oxford. In 1963 he left Penn State and returned to Rutgers as Chairman of the Mechanics and Materials Science Department.
Although for many years Jack has been involved in administration, he has always been an active teacher and researcher. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in polymer science, engineering and physics. He is an author or coauthor of over 100 research papers on fracture, nuclear magnetic resonance, dynamic mechanical behavior and single crystal morphology of high polymers; he has also authored numerous monographs on these subjects. His contributions continue to lead the way in the fascinating and complex field of polymer science and engineering.