Acknowledgement: non-academic persons In my industry-sponsored dissertation, I want to thank my industry contact and some non-academic persons in the acknowledgement section of my dissertation. How should I refer to them:


John Smith
J.   Smith
Mr. John Smith


Considering the slightly informal nature of the acknowledgement section, yet keeping in mind that these are industry folks who wouldn't mind a bit of respect.
Acknowledgments usually skip formal titles, i.e. no Prof., Dr., Mr. or Ms. Some journals even insist on it in their authors guidelines (here for J. Chem. Ed.):


  Acknowledgment
  Include acknowledgment of grant and other financial support, technical assistance, colleagues’ advice, and so on. Do not use professional titles or honorifics in this section.


If your journal has guidelines on the topic, follow them.

Otherwise, just refer to the person as you would if you were giving his name to a colleague, i.e. omit the titles and honorifics unless you barely know them. But if you think they will like it, use their titles, it doesn't hurt!



To give a few examples from Nobel-prize winning papers: