Douglas Henderson, 86, passed away on September 25, 2020. He obtained his undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1956 from the University of British Columbia. He obtained a doctoral degree in physics at the University of Utah in 1961. In the course of his work with Henry Eyring, Doug developed a lifelong interest in the interfaces between mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biophysics.



Doug taught at the University of Idaho, ASU, the University of Waterloo, Canada and the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City. The majority of his career was spent as a member of the research staff of the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA. After retiring from IBM, Doug taught chemistry at BYU for several years and continued his research there. He held honorary professorships at the University of Hong Kong and the Rush Medical University in Chicago. He also received an honorary doctorate from the Ukrainian National Academy of Science.

Doug was an international leader in the theory of liquids. His pioneering work and breakthroughs during the past 60 years have defined areas of research for liquids, solutions, and electrolytes. His first major contribution, in 1967 with Australian researcher John Barker, concerned the perturbation theory of fluids. A second major contribution was an integral equation for liquid-solid interfaces. Doug is the author of 500 scientific articles, including one in Scientific American, and 62 major reviews in the field of statistical mechanics.



He won two awards from IBM for his research. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, the American Institute of Chemists, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1964 & 1966) and a John Guggenheim Fellowship (1997). In 1999, he was awarded the prestigious Joel Henry Hildebrand National American Chemical Society Award in the Theoretical and Experimental Chemistry of Liquids.

Doug is survived by his wife, Rose-Marie, three children, eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Funeral services and interment will be held on Friday, October 2, 2020 at Wasatch Lawn Memorial Park at 3401 Highland Drive, Millcreek, UT. (Source: Arizona Republic)