John Myrick Dawson (30 September 1930 in Champaign, Illinois – 17 November 2001 in Los Angeles) was an American computational physicist and the father of plasma-based acceleration techniques.
His thesis "Distortion of Atoms and Molecules in Dense Media" was prepared under the guidance of Zaka Slawsky.
He also spent two years (1969–71) at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where he started a plasma simulation group.
A visionary, he realized as early as the late 1950s the potential impact of simulations as a way to test both theories and large construction projects before they were built.
He believed strongly in the importance of controlled nuclear-fusion research and was particularly proud of his invention of an isotope separation process that was used to detect cancer and, consequently, help save many lives.
Shortly before his death, he had been in improving health and had enjoyed attending APS's division of plasma physics meeting in Long Beach, California.