Book excerpt: Fundamentals of Polymer Science for Engineers Filling a gap in the market, this textbook provides a concise, yet thorough introduction to polymer science for advanced engineering students and practitioners, focusing on the chemical, physical and materials science aspects that are most relevant for engineering applications. After covering polymer synthesis and properties, the major section of the book is devoted to polymeric materials, such as thermoplastics and polymer composites, polymer processing such as injection molding and extrusion, and methods for large-scale polymer characterization. The text concludes with an overview of engineering plastics. The emphasis throughout is on application-relevant topics, and the author focuses on real-life, industry-relevant polymeric materials.