Joseph Mallam Hendrie (March 18, 1925 – December 26, 2023) was an American physicist who was chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

[2] On August 9, 1977 he was named to a four-year term on the Commission and designated as its chairman by President Jimmy Carter.

[3] From 1975 to 1977, Hendrie had served as chairman of the Department of Applied Science at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

[3] On March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant, along the Susquehanna River located south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, suffered a partial meltdown.

Immediately following the accident, Hendrie advised Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburgh to order the evacuation "of pregnant women and pre-school age children ... within a five-mile radius of the Three Mile Island facility."