John M. Dawson (30 September 1930, Champaign, Illinois – 17 November 2001, Los Angeles) was an American computational physicist. He received the Aneesur Rahman prize in computational physics. The Rahman prize is the highest honor given by the American Physical Society for work in computational physics.[1] He is credited as the inventor of the field of Plasma acceleration. He also was the recipient of the Maxwell Prize. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a recipient of the California Scientist of the Year award, a Fulbright Fellowship, and two UCLA physics teaching awards.
Aneesur Rahman prize citation: "In recognition of his leading role in opening the field of computer simulation of plasmas and for numerous major contributions made using plasma simulation as a complement to analytic theory and experiment. He has lead in opening the field of plasma-based accelerators and made major advances in understanding basic nonlinear plasma wave processes, anomalous absorption and transport, advanced plasma-based coherent light sources and space plasma phenomena."