Colloidal dispersions played an important role in the early history of rheology as it evolved into a defined branch of science and engineering. Bingham's model for yield stress fluids was based on experiments on dispersions, namely oil paints. About the same time, systematic measurements on colloidal systems were performed in Europe, especially in Freundlich's laboratory in Berlin. This work culminated in one of the first books on rheology: Thixotropie (Paris, 1935). In the subsequent decades the interest in rheology gradually shifted to polymers and the theory of viscoelasticity.

Understanding Brownian motion and its consequences motivated Einstein's work on intrinsic viscosity and von Smoluchowski's study of colloidal aggregation nearly a century ago. However, it was not until the theoretical work of G. K. Batchelor in the early 1970s that a full micromechanical framework for colloidal suspension rheology combining statistical mechanics and hydrodynamics existed. This stimulated much important work and since then the number of researchers and the progress of our understanding of the subject has increased dramatically. The result is a rapidly growing body of scientific and technical papers – experimental and theoretical work as well as simulations – contributed by chemists, physicists, biologists, and engineers alike.