Dennis W. Lindle

Our colleague and friend Dennis W. Lindle suddenly passed away on Oct 4, 2014, at 57 years of age. Dennis received his BS at Indiana University in 1978, and his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley in 1983 where he worked with Dave Shirley. After graduation he continued his research activities at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, as postdoctoral fellow. He became involved there with developing the scientific case for the Advanced Light Source (ALS) in Berkeley, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2013. In 1986 he moved to NIST, formerly NBS, as physicist. In 1991 he became professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV), and twice served as chair of the Chemistry Department. In 2002, based on his contributions in X-ray research, he was nominated by his peers and elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Dennis was also named Distinguished Professor at UNLV in 2013. In 2014 he spent a year on sabbatical leave at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC), Paris, France. He collaborated with a large number of groups and individual scientists, both experimental and theoretical, throughout the world.

Dennis authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications. His research interests were in the area of x-ray spectroscopy and the fundamental properties of matter. His focus has been on studying fundamental interactions of x-rays with atoms, small molecules and radicals (e.g., rare gases, nitrogen gas, carbon monoxide, freons), including photoexcitation, photoemission and photofragmentation of molecules, and x-ray fluorescence studies. He made seminal contributions in identifying breakdowns in fundamental assumptions in atomic and molecular photoemission; for example, the unexpected breakdown of the dipole approximation and the emergence of nondipole effects, even at relatively low photon energy, and the significant deviations from the single-electron approximation even at energies very far from threshold. He also pioneered the field of resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) in isolated species, including the polarization effects on x-ray emission. His most recent work has been on chiral species, and on developing a better understanding of the fundamental property of electronegativity. And he left a large legacy of experimental results that will be written up by his collaborators.

On a more personal note, Dennis was not only a bright and energetic scientist, but also a very enjoyable companion and a loyal friend. He loved live theatre, traveling in exotic places, hiking and walking. He very much appreciated good food and good wine, and was a real expert in Californian wines, of which he had a huge collection, and with some expertise in French wines. He chaired a conference at UNLV, the International Workshop on Photoionization (IWP) in 2011, which is remembered at least as much for the food and wine as for the scientific program. He will be sorely missed by his collaborators and friends, and his premature death is a great loss for the scientific community.