Robert W. Henderson was an American engineer.
He attended the University of California School of Engineering. In 1942, he received an Academy Award for his work on photographic processes and special effects.
After being recruited to join the Manhattan Project, he worked at the University of California-Berkeley under Ernest O. Lawrence and at Oak Ridge on the design of the electromagnet to separate uranium isotopes at the Y-12 Plant. In 1944, he was transferred to Los Alamos, where he was the leader of Group X-2A (Engineering) in the Explosives Division. He was also involved with the engineering behind the Trinity Test.
Henderson had planned to return to Hollywood after the war, but Norris Bradbury persuaded him to join what became the Sandia National Laboratories.