Ron Jenkins (1932–2002)

Dr Jenkins, born in 1932 in Oxford, England, died peacefully on 19 June 2002 of prostate cancer at his home in Downingtown, PA, USA.

Dr Jenkins studied Chemical Physics at Oxford Polytechnic Institute in England and obtained his PhD from the Polytechnic Institute of New York. He was a Licentiate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry, a Fellow and Chartered Physicist of the Institute of Physics, a Distinguished Fellow of the International Centre for Diffraction Data and an Honorary Member of the British Crystallographic Association. He became the Principal Scientist for Philips Electronics Instruments and was later both Principal Scientist and Executive Director of the International Centre for Diffraction Data.

Dr Jenkins was well known around the world for his contributions in the X-ray analytical science fields of spectrometry and diffractometry. He wrote four widely used text books on these subjects, 11 book chapters, and published about 230 scientific papers. He taught these subjects around the world including the Denver X-ray Conference for 30 years. He established the International Journal of X-ray Spectrometry, and received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including the Birks Award for X-ray Spectrometry and the Barrett Award for X-ray Diffraction, the only person ever to win both awards. He was also a trustee of the Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts, for many years.

Dr Jenkins is survived by his wife of 47 years, Phyllis, his five children and five grandchildren.