An "Institut fur Makromolekulare Chemie was founded in 1940 in Freiburg, Germany under the direction of Hermann Staudinger. In America a "Polymer Research Institute" (PRI) was established in 1941 by Herman Mark at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now Polytechnic Institute of NYU). Several hundred graduates of PRI played an important role in the US polymer industry and academia. Other PRI's were founded in 1961 by Richard S. Stein at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1967 by Eric Baer at Case Western Reserve University and in 1988 at the University of Akron.