ECS President | 1977-1978
Douglas N. Bennion was born in Ogden, Utah on March 10, 1935. He attended public schools in Corvalis, Oregon. He received a B.S. degree in chemical engineering from Oregon State College in 1957 and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1964.
Dr. Bennion worked at Dow Chemical, Pittsburg, California, from 1957 to 1960 as a chemical engineer. Assignments included working in the utilities department associated with chlorine-caustic production, organic chemicals production, and chemical purchasing. During this period, six months were spent on active duty as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1964 he went to work for the Department of Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, as an Assistant Professor. He was made an Associate Professor in 1969 and Professor in 1975. He has directed graduate research in studies related to ion transport. This included ion transport in semipermeable membranes with applications to reverse osmosis and related desalting techniques, ion transport in nonaqueous battery development, and ion transport in porous electrodes with applications to secondary batteries and flow-through electrodes for recovery of metals from dilute solutions. He authored numerous technical papers on these topics. He taught courses in thermodynamics, transport phenomena, design, and electrochemical Engineering.
Dr. Bennion became an active member of The Electrochemical Society in 1965. He served the Society in a variety of functions. He held most elected offices of the Southern California-Nevada Section from 1967 to 1973. He was Section Chairman from 1972 to 1973. He served as Treasurer for the Society Meeting in Los Angeles in 1970. He served on several Society committees and Chairman of many: Summer Fellowship Subcommittee, Ways and Means, Honors and Awards, Finance, Electrochemical Engineering and Technology Subcommittee. He was active in the Battery, Physical Electrochemistry, and Industrial Electrolytic Divisions.
Dr. Bennion received the Battery Division Research Award in 1992 and was made an Honorary Member in 1987.
Dr. Bennion was killed in an airplane he was piloting.
