Robert L. Banks (November 24, 1921 – January 3, 1989) was an American chemist.
He attended the University of Missouri, Rolla, and initiated into Alpha Phi Omega in 1940.
They began working together in 1946, and in 1951 invented "crystalline polypropylene" and high-density polyethylene (HDPE).
The polymerization of ethylene was made possible by their discovery of the so-called Phillips catalyst.
[1] In 1987, Banks and Hogan won the Perkin Medal, and in 2001 they were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.