Jack Simmons recently retired as Professor of Radiation Biophysics at the University of Westminster. He started his research career at the Medical College of St. Bartholomew's Hospital under the supervision of Professor (now Sir Joseph) Rotblat, and was awarded his Ph.D. in Radiation Physics in 1960. After spending two years at the Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.A. he returned to London to work for the M.R.C. at Hammersmith Hospital.

He then moved onto teaching, and was appointed a Senior Lecturer at the (then) Polytechnic of Central London where he and his research students applied the technique known as "microdosimetry" (or "track structure") to the problem of the potential hazards arising from the inhalation of radio-active material into the lung. A long series of refereed papers and presentations to international conferences describe the outcomes of these investigations. The work culminated in a book, "Radiation Protection Dosimetry: A Radical Reappraisal", co-authored with Dr. David Watt and published in 1999.

The academic year 1985-86 was spent as a Visiting Expert with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington. There Professor Simmons assisted with the assessment of various radiological hazards, and was an assessor for the preliminary draft of the BEIR-IV Report on Inhaled Alpha-Emitters. Since his retirement Professor Simmons has continued to be active in the field. He has given talks on his findings and their implications for radiation hazards in the U.K., the U.S.A., the Czech Republic and South Africa, and is preparing manuscripts for further publications.

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