Lodewijk van den Berg (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈloːdəʋɛik fɑn də(m) ˈbɛr(ə)x];[a] March 24, 1932 – October 16, 2022) was a Dutch-born American chemical engineer.

Van den Berg worked many years in research and acquired management experience in the preparation of crystalline materials—in particular, the growth of single crystals of chemical compounds, and the investigation of associated defect chemistry and electronic properties.

He became an international authority on vapor growth techniques with an emphasis on mercuric iodide crystals and its application in the nuclear industry as gamma ray detectors.

[1] Van den Berg and his colleagues designed the EG&G Vapor Crystal Growth System experiment apparatus for a Space Shuttle flight.

NASA asked EG&G and Van den Berg to compile a list of eight people who would qualify to perform the science experiments in space and to become a Payload Specialist.

The seven-man crew aboard Challenger conducted experiments in crystal growth, drop dynamics leading to container-less material processing, and atmospheric trace gas spectroscopy.

[1] After returning to Earth, Van den Berg continued to work on crystal growth experiments at EG&G in California and he became the head of the materials science section.

[4] Van den Berg visited the Netherlands every two years,[2] and was the subject of a short 2004 documentary, named The "Forgotten Astronaut", by the tv-show Netwerk on the Dutch public broadcasting channel Nederland 2.