Stephen W. Wilkins

Wilkins' parents were originally from Brno, Czechoslovakia, but emigrated and came to Australia in 1939. Wilkins attended Preshil, The Margaret Lyttle Memorial School in Kew.https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wilkins-stephen-william/ Wilkins grew up in Melbourne and studied for a BSc in physics and mathematics between 1964 and 1967 at the University of Melbourne. He got his PhD in 1972 at the same university with a thesis titled "Correlations and Interactions in Binary Alloys". In 1975, he became a research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He advanced to eventually become Chief Research Scientist in 1998.{{cite journal |last1= Varghese|first1=Jose|date= 2013 |title=Steve Wilkins (1946–2013)|url=https://scripts.iucr.org/cgi-bin/paper?es0402 |journal= Acta Crystallographica Section A |volume=69 |issue=5 |pages=528–529 |doi=10.1107/S0108767313017650 |pmc= |pmid= |access-date=2022-02-07|doi-access=free }}{{cite web |url=https://csiropedia.csiro.au/wilkins-stephen-william/ |title=Stephen William Wilkins (1946 – 2013) |last=Ward |first=Colin |date= 13 January 2015|website=CSRIOpedia |publisher=CSIRO |access-date=2022-02-07 |quote=}}

Wilkins unexpectedly died from a heart attack on March 25, 2013.{{cite journal |last=Robinson|first=Rob|date= 2013 |title=Tough times: Mourning the loss of friends and preparing for the September federal election |url=https://physics.org.au/wp-content/uploads/Australian%20Physics/Aust%20Phys%2050-3.pdf |journal=Australian Physics |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=79 |doi= |pmc= |pmid= |access-date=2022-02-07}}

Wilkins is perhaps best known for his work on phase-contrast X-ray imaging (PCXI). His article on PCXI with laboratory, i.e. polychromatic, sources was published in Nature in 1996 and it is the most cited article in the X-ray phase-contrast research field with over 2000 citations.{{cite journal |vauthors= Wilkins SW, Gureyev TE, Gao D, Pogany A, Stevenson AW |date= 1996 |title=Phase-contrast imaging using polychromatic hard X-rays |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/384335a0 |journal=Nature |volume=383 |issue= 6607|pages=335–338 |doi=10.1038/384335a0 |pmc= |pmid= |bibcode= 1996Natur.384..335W |s2cid= 4273199 |access-date=2022-02-07}}{{cite web |url=https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=_AMGDuQAAAAJ&citation_for_view=_AMGDuQAAAAJ:qbqt7gslDFUC |title=Phase-contrast imaging using polychromatic hard X-rays |author= |date= |website=Google Scholar |access-date=2022-02-07 |quote=}}

Wilkins had an instrumental role in the conception and launch of the BigDiff beamline, BL20B, at the Photon Factory in Japan. The work to realize this beamline began in 1985 and the first experiments were conducted in 1992. This X-ray scattering beamline was primarily used for X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The beamline was decommissioned on February 25, 2013.{{cite journal |last=Creagh|first=Dudley|date=March 2013 |title=THE DECOMMISSIONING OF THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BEAMLINE (BL20B) AT THE PHOTON FACTORY KEK TSUKUBA JAPAN |url=https://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~chantler/opticshome/irps/pdfs/bulletins/Vol-27-No-1-March-2013.pdf |journal=IRPS Bulletin - Newsletter of the International Radiation Physics Society |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=9–15 |doi= |pmc= |pmid= |access-date=2022-02-07}}{{cite journal |vauthors= Barnea Z, Creagh DC, Davis TJ, Garrett RF, Janky S, Stevenson AW, Wilkins SW|date= 1992 |title=The Australian diffractometer at the Photon Factory |url=https://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.1143202 |journal=Review of Scientific Instruments |volume=63 |issue=1 |pages=1069–1072 |doi=10.1063/1.1143202 |pmc= |pmid= |bibcode= 1992RScI...63.1069B |access-date=2022-02-07}}

• 1997 - Walter Boas Medal from the Australian Institute of Physics. Shared with Keith Nugent.
• 2003 - Honorary Professor, Department of Physics, Monash University.

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Category:1946 births

Category:2013 deaths

Category:Australian physicists

Category:University of Melbourne alumni

Category:Scientists from Melbourne

Category:CSIRO people