Ernest R. Davidson is Professor of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, US. He was born on born October 12, 1936 in Terre Haute, Indiana. His name is associated with both the Davidson correction and the "Davidson diagonalization" method which he applied to configuration interaction methods. He is the author of over 400 publications, including Reduced Density Matrices in Quantum Chemistry, Academic Press, 1976. He has been awarded many honors, including member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (1981) and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1985) and the National Academy of Science (1987). In 2001, he was awarded the National Medal of Science.