MMI has coordinated and facilitated the annual Turner Alfrey Visiting Professor short course lecture series since the early 1970s.  Speakers from around the world have been invited to present the latest, most up-to-date information in their particular polymer expertise areas. Typically, these courses are delivered in an intensive, one-week, daily lecture format.

Visiting professors also spend additionaltime at MMI, participating in one-on-one and research group discussions at the Institute, and in collaborations and discussions with other nearby industrial and academic researchers. They also prepare and deliver a set of on-site seminars for many of the sponsoring organizations that parallel and supplement the formal course lectures. Financial co-sponsors of the Turner Alfrey Visiting Professor program in recent years include The Dow Chemical Company, Dow Corning Corporation, Michigan State University, Central Michigan University, Saginaw Valley State University, the Mid-Michigan Section of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and the Midland Section of the American Chemical Society.

The MMI Visiting Professor program was launched two years after the founding of MMI for the purpose of establishing an international reputation for the Institute while providing a mechanism for bringing scientific talent into the area to encourage potential collaborations with the scientific and engineering staff of local industry and academe. The program was formally renamed in honor of Turner Alfrey in 1982 after his death.  Dr. Alfrey was one of MMI's conceptual founders, a world-renowned polymer researcher at The Dow Chemical Company, an adjunct professor of MMI, and teacher of some of MMI’s early polymer courses.

A complete list of the visiting professors that have lectured at MMI over the years is provided below. These individuals, now 38 in number, represent a truly distinguished "Who's Who" list of polymer science and technology leaders worldwide. One Nobel laureate, the late Pierre de Gennes, appears on the list.