ARCS Foundation is sad to report the passing of David Dixon, a well-known and well-regarded chemist who was honored by ARCS as a Hall of Fame inductee. We join in praising his scientific achievements.

Dixon was an ARCS Scholar in 1968 while attending the California Institute of Technology, where he completed his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. He received a PhD from Harvard in physical chemistry in 1976 with renowned Professors Dudley Herschbach (Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 1986) and William N. Lipscomb (Nobel Prize, Chemistry, 1976).

He spent more than a decade at DuPont’s Central Research and Development in Delaware. His contributions at DuPont supported the development of alternatives for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons, helping to protect and restore the stratospheric ozone layer.

ARCS honored him in 2022 for his work in computational chemistry that caused a paradigm shift in the world’s major chemical companies. At DuPont’s Central Research at the Experimental Station in Wilmington, Delaware, his research focused on eliminating atmospheric ozone-depleting substances and getting replacements to market as soon as possible.

“We needed alternatives that would degrade more quickly and never reach the ozone layer,” Dixon said at the time. 

Dixon and his team came up with compounds that would fall apart by reacting with lower atmospheres. These alternatives to chlorofluorocarbons impacted the environment by initiating an evolution in energy production nationwide. 

He later served as Associate Director for Theory, Modeling, and Simulation at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington, where he led several interdisciplinary initiatives that helped guide the development of foundational computational chemistry software used worldwide. In every role he held, Dixon was known for his discipline, thoroughness, and an unwavering commitment to collaboration, bringing together scientists from diverse disciplines and institutions to address complex scientific challenges.

In January 2004, Dixon joined the faculty at the University of Alabama, holding the Robert Ramsay Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry until his passing.

Over the course of his career, Dixon authored/co-authored more than 950 publications. 

Upon receiving the ARCS recognition, Dixon said, “I am extremely grateful to the ARCS Foundation for your support of me as an undergraduate at Caltech.”

ARCS Foundation remembers Dixon as an exceptional ARCS Scholar whose scientific contributions advanced the ARCS mission and will benefit humanity for decades—and beyond.

Read his full obituary.