Dolphus Edward Milligan (June 17, 1928, Brighton, Alabama – October 18, 1973, Gaithersburg, Maryland) was an internationally acclaimed American chemist, best known for his spectroscopic studies of free radicals and other reactive molecules.
He then accepted a position as a chemistry instructor in Fort Valley State College in Georgia where he taught until 1954.
In 1996, When Robert F. Curl accepted the Nobel Prize in chemistry he expressed his appreciation for Milligan’s help on his earlier more volatile experiments.
On October 18, 1973, aged 45, he died suddenly in his NIST office in Gaithersburg, Maryland where he was chief of the photochemistry section at the National Bureau of Standards.
In 2003, the University of Maryland, College Park established a fellowship in his honor in Collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).