Charles L. Mader
Charles Lavern Mader (August 8, 1930 – August 18, 2018) was an American physical chemist who studied the fluid dynamics of detonations, explosives, propellants, and water waves. He spent most of his career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he became a Laboratory Fellow. He wrote several books and more than 160 technical papers on numerical modeling of explosives, propellants, and waves.
Born in Dewey, Oklahoma, Mader earned his B.S. and M.S. in chemistry from Oklahoma A&M College (now Oklahoma State University) and was a Banning Scholar at Oklahoma City University. He studied at the University of Kansas and earned his Ph.D. from Pacific Western University in 1980. He joined Los Alamos in 1955, working in the Explosives Division (1955–1966) and then in the Theoretical Division (1966–1986). After retiring, he continued researching through Mader Consulting Co.
His work focused on building numerical models to predict detonation properties and to simulate the flow of explosives and propellants. He also applied his modeling to tsunamis and other water waves, using data from radiographs to validate his results. His books include Numerical Modeling of Detonations (1979), Numerical Modeling of Explosives and Propellants (2007), and Numerical Modeling of Water Waves (2004).
Mader’s research influenced scientists worldwide and he worked with institutions such as the Beijing Institute of Technology and the University of Hawaii. He was named a distinguished scientist at the Energetics Research Institute of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. An avid mountaineer and skier, he was the 65th person to climb all 54 Colorado peaks above 14,000 feet, and he and his wife Emma Jean skied for sixty years, accumulating 1.5 million vertical feet after his 80th birthday. He was deeply involved with the Boy Scouts, serving as Scoutmaster in Los Alamos (1972–1984) and mentoring 48 Scouts to Eagle rank; he received the Silver Beaver Award in 1984.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:19 (CET).