Lloyd Arthur Currie

Lloyd grew up in Somerville, Massachusetts, where he graduated from Somerville High School as salutatorian in 1948. His grandmother, Margaret Bonniefield Currie, was an important influence in his early life and helped inspire his lifelong interest in writing. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning his degree in chemistry in 1952, and received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1955. At Chicago, he studied under Willard Libby, who pioneered radiocarbon dating and later received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After seven years teaching chemistry at Penn State University, Lloyd joined the National Bureau of Standards in 1962, beginning a career of nearly four decades at the institution now known as the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He continued as a Scientist Emeritus following his retirement.

Lloyd’s research ranged across analytical chemistry, measurement science, atmospheric radioactivity, and radiocarbon measurement. Building on the radiocarbon work of his doctoral advisor, he helped advance techniques capable of measuring carbon-14 in increasingly tiny samples, opening new applications in environmental and atmospheric research. His 1968 paper, “Limits for Qualitative Detection and Quantitative Determination,” established a statistical framework for determining when a measured signal could reliably be distinguished from background noise. The paper continued to be cited decades later, and the approach became known in his field as the “Currie criterion.”

During his career, Lloyd authored or coauthored more than 220 scientific publications, served as a Congressional Fellow on the staff of the House Science Committee, and worked with scientists and students throughout the United States and abroad. During a 1970–71 sabbatical, he was a visiting professor in chemistry at Ghent University in Belgium and a visiting professor in the Physics Institute at the University of Bern in Switzerland. His professional honors included being named a NIST Fellow and receiving both the U.S. Department of Commerce Silver and Gold Medals. Colleagues remembered him not only for his science but as a generous mentor, a man of integrity, and a “true gentleman.”

On June 27, 1959, Lloyd married Barbara Burns. They shared 54 years of marriage until her death in 2013 and raised four children together.

Science was only one expression of Lloyd’s curiosity and enthusiasm. Music was a passion from childhood onward. He began on the fife and took up the trumpet at age 13. In high school and college, he played in a jazz quartet, the Rhythm Kings, performed on the radio, and helped pay his way through MIT with his music. Later, he took up the French horn, played in community bands, participated in programs with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, played keyboard, and composed music. At age 87, he played a French horn solo of “Amazing Grace” during an Easter service at his church. Even near the end of his life, he could still pick up the trumpet he had played since boyhood and make music with his family.

Lloyd loved downhill skiing, a sport he introduced to his children. He and Barbara traveled around the world, and his skiing took him to the glaciers of Zermatt, Chamonix, and New Zealand. Well into his later years, he continued to travel, visiting Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands at age 86. He also enjoyed sailing, figure skating, swimming, and cross-country skiing.

Faith was important to Lloyd. He was baptized at age 12 by his paternal grandfather, the Rev. John Morgan Currie, a Baptist minister, and later made Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church his church home.

Lloyd is survived by his four children, Susan Currie James (Daniel), John Currie (Audrey), Doug Currie (Hollie), and Ken Currie (Jennifer); ten grandchildren, Mary James (Mark Shoemaker), Abby Philbin (Rick), Thomas James (Becky), Nate Currie, Noah Currie, Amanda Currie, Katherine “Katya” Currie, Natalie Currie, Christopher Currie, and Stephanie Currie; and four great-grandchildren, Anna and Lucy Philbin, and James and Sidney Shoemaker. He is also survived by his niece, Therese Cohen.

A memorial service celebrating Lloyd’s life, with music in his honor, will be held at Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church, 610 South Frederick Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland, on Saturday, November 14, 2026, at 10:00 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Gaithersburg Presbyterian Church, https://gpchurch.org/give

or the National Science Foundation (NSF), https://www.nsf.gov/about/donate.