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Marek W. Urban

scientist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ17040378
Source-derived summary

Marek W. Urban is an American professor and polymer and materials scientist who works in polymers, polymer spectroscopy, stimuli-responsive materials, and self-healing polymers.

He studied at Marquette University where he received MS degree (1979) and continued at Michigan Technological University where he received his doctorate in chemistry and chemical engineering (1984), followed by postdoctoral fellowship at Case Western Reserve University (1984–86).

He is currently the J.E. Sirrine Foundation Endowed Chair and professor at Clemson University in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Chemistry. His prior appointments included department chair positions at North Dakota State University and the University of Southern Mississippi. He also has led and directed the National Science Foundation Research Centers, Industry/University Cooperative Research Center in Coatings (1995–2005) and Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Stimuli-Responsive Polymeric Films and Coatings. Numerous media, including New York Times, Forbes, BBC, National Geographic, Discovery, The Economist, Discovery Channel, USA Today, local TV stations, and many others have featured his research group (Urban Research Group) discoveries in stimuli-responsive polymers, including self-healing films, colloidal synthesis, and antimicrobial surfaces.

Selected publications

BOOKS

Stimuli-Responsive Materials: From Molecules to Nature Mimicking Materials Design. Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, UK, 2016.

Handbook of Stimuli-Responsive Materials, Wiley-VCH, Verlag & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany, 2011.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Marek W. Urban” as scientist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 1984, 1995, 2005—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1953-01-01. The account is most persuasive where Marek, Urban and scientist can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as scientist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17040378. VIAF identifies the subject as 32075795. The Library of Congress control number is n93013806. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1984, 1995 and 2005.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Marek W. Urban”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Marek W. Urban primary sources, Marek W. Urban archive and Marek research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Marek W. Urban”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Marek W. Urban” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.