Douglas (Doug) Dorset (1942-2016)

We are sad to announce that Dr Douglas Dorset passed away on 8 December 2016.

Douglas Dorset's career as an electron crystallographer started when he joined Dr Donald Parson's electron-crystallography laboratory at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in 1971. In 1973 he moved to the Medical Foundation of Buffalo - now the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute - where he headed the Electron Diffraction Department and did the fundamental work for which he is best known. Douglas moved to ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company in 2000, investigating the structure of wax crystals and how these change in the presence of modifiers. His research encompassed new methods and an array of crystallographic studies on zeolites, polyolefins and other materials.

In the face of those who said that electron-diffraction data could not yield quantitative results, he argued long and hard that the problem of dynamical scattering could be overcome and that electron-diffraction data could yield ab initio structure determinations. He was responsible for bringing the work on electron crystallography of Vainshtein and Zvyagin in Moscow to the attention of a larger western audience. He developed techniques to overcome the problems of the missing cone of data, dynamical scattering, radiation damage and sample problems. His breadth of applications included polymers, waxes, zeolites, fibers, cholesterol derivatives, fullerenes, phthalocyanines, solid solutions of paraffins and proteins at low resolution.

Douglas received the A. L. Patterson Award in 2002 from the American Crystallographic Association. He was within the top 1% of most-cited authors in the chemical literature, worldwide, 1981-1997 (compilation of David A. Pendlebury, Institute for Scientific Information). He was a member of the IUCr Commission on Electron Diffraction (now Electron Crystallography) from 1993 to 2002 (Chair 1999-2003), and a Co-editor of Acta Crystallographica Section A from 1999 to 2011. He was on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Electron Microscopy Technique (1988-2010) and Associate Editor of Microscopy Society of America Bulletin from 1992 to 1994.

Douglas was involved in organizing several of the IUCr International Schools of Crystallography in Erice, Sicily, as well as many other schools on crystallography around the world and numerous sessions at major national and international meetings. He was a good teacher and co-supervised research students in several countries, an enthusiastic supporter of many young researchers - who are now active electron crystallographers. Douglas always had time to discuss the finer points of an analysis, or to mentor others in need of some inspiration. He encouraged many of us in our work during the early years of electron crystallography, when its power was not fully embraced by the global crystallography community. His impressive knowledge of all aspects of crystallography will be remembered by all who met him.