[4] Danckwerts was made a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve at the beginning of the Second World War, and was trained as a bomb disposal officer.

[4][6] Later in the war he undertook bomb disposal work abroad and was wounded in a minefield in Sicily, after which he was posted to the Combined Operations Headquarters in Whitehall.

[7] After the war, Danckwerts studied chemical engineering, obtaining a master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology[8] thanks to a Harkness Fellowship.

He left this job in 1956 to become a professor of chemical engineering science at Imperial College London, a newly created position, where he continued to research as well as teach.

[4] As Shell Professor, Danckwerts did a large amount of research, particularly in the fields of mixing phenomena and gas absorption, and became a noted international speaker.