Clifford Dykstra, Ph.D.
1952–2025
Clifford Dykstra, 72, passed away surrounded by family on January 18th, 2025. Born October 30th, 1952, married Dana Stowers on July 29th, 1988. He is survived by his wife Dana, his daughter Tracey Dykstra (Sean), granddaughter Eleanor Dykstra, and his brother Roger Dykstra.
Clifford graduated valedictorian of Oaklawn High School in 1969. In 1973, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and a Bachelor of Science in Physics degrees from the University of Illinois. He obtained his PhD from the UC Berkeley in 1976. He returned to the University of Illinois as a professor of chemistry. In 1990, he moved to the Indiana University Indianapolis (then called IUPUI) as a professor of chemistry. He was at IUPUI from 1990 to 2006, where he served as Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs for four years and was named Chancellor's Professor in 2001. He was Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Illinois State University from 2006 through 2009 and then returned to the University of Illinois.
His research interests were in theoretical and computational chemistry. He was interested in large-scale calculational approaches to simulating a variety of molecular phenomena, especially how molecules can stick without forming chemical bonds. He has contributed to the methodology used for high-level determination of the distribution of electrons in molecules and for evaluating the properties of individual molecules. He also works on developing models to make the chemical problems associated with assembling molecules in large structures suitable for computational simulation.
He has published over 180 articles. Professor Dykstra has been an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a Beckman Fellow in the Center for Advanced Study (Urbana), and a recipient of four awards for teaching excellence. He has published three texts for advanced chemistry courses, is the Editor of the Journal of Molecular Structure-Theochem, Computational, and Theoretical Chemistry, and served on the board of two other journals, including in Chemical Physics Letters, for 21 years.