Paul John Flory was an American chemist and Nobel laureate who was known for his work in the field of polymers, or macromolecules. He was a leading pioneer in understanding the behavior of polymers in solution, and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1974 "for his fundamental achievements, both theoretical and experimental, in the physical chemistry of macromolecules".

In polymer science, star-shaped polymers are the simplest class of branched polymers with a general structure consisting of several linear chains connected to a central core. The core, or the center, of the polymer can be an atom, molecule, or macromolecule; the chains, or "arms", consist of variable-length organic chains. Star-shaped polymers in which the arms are all equivalent in length and structure are considered homogeneous, and ones with variable lengths and structures are considered heterogeneous.