There is sad news from Australia of the death last week of Ronald (Ron) Woods at the age of 88, who in 2005 was honoured by the SME/AusIMM as a Living Legend, at the Centenary of Flotation Symposium in Brisbane. One of the other flotation legends, Prof. Doug Fuerstenau, commenting on my 2016 interview with Ron, said that he was already well aware of Prof. Wood's seminal contributions to the electrochemistry of sulfide mineral flotation when he first visited Berkeley in 1974. He said "the next time that I met Ron was in 1983 at the Wark Symposium in Adelaide. I consider that his paper presented on that occasion to be a masterpiece in interpreting the different mechanisms by which sulfhydryl collectors can interact with sulfide minerals".
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| Ron Woods (right) with Prof. George Poling at the Wark Symposium in 1983 |
My first meeting with Ron Woods was in Falmouth at MEI's Minerals Engineering '99 and we met again in 2007 at Precious Metals '07 in Brisbane and three months later at Flotation '07 in Cape Town.
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| Minerals Engineering '99, Falmouth |
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| Flotation '07 Cape Town |
The last time that we met was in 2016 at the SME Annual Meeting in Phoenix, where he was awarded the SME’s coveted and highly prestigious Antoine M. Gaudin Award, for his outstanding contributions to advancing the chemistry of flotation of sulfide minerals and precious metals.
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| Presented with the Gaudin Award by Robert Seitz |
During our brief meeting in Phoenix, I asked Ron if he would like to be interviewed for MEI's In Conversation series, and I was very pleased when he readily agreed, and the interview was published on 30 May 2016. There is not a lot more than I can add to this, apart from offering our sincere condolences to his wife Elspeth, who I was also pleased to meet in Cape Town, and who was with Ron at the SME Meeting In Phoenix.
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| Ron and Elspeth in Phoenix with Marianne and Matthew Jeffrey |
The world has truly lost one of the greats in flotation research.
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An incredible leader in flotation research. Condolences to his wife and family and friends.
ReplyDeleteRonel Kappes, Newmont Corporation, USA
Condolences to the Woods family. Professor Woods was a true gentleman and leader in mineral beneficiation. Another legend has passed.
ReplyDeleteMarc LeVier, K. Marc LeVier & Associates, Inc., Denver, USA
All the best to the Woods family. We certainly produced some superstars in the Mineral Processing profession.
ReplyDeleteDiana Drinkwater, Metcelerate, Australia
Lost a mentor and good friend of 25yrs, he has such an impact on those he worked with, and will be missed greatly
ReplyDeleteMatthew Jeffrey, Newmont Gold Corporation, USA
I remember him well. What a long, productive life, and a good friend to so many! Such an impact on those he worked with, and will be missed greatly
ReplyDeletePeter A. Adcock, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, USA
Indeed, a great loss--condolences to his Family.
ReplyDeleteT.C.Rao
Sad news indeed Barry. Adds to the sorrow of Alan Buckley's passing. The Buckley and Woods papers should be required reading for everyone dealing in flotation surface chemistry.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry to hear of Ron's passing. I called his wife Elspeth and talked to her and family for a long time. I had the pleasure of meeting Ron while doing my MS at Virginia Tech. I was lucky enough to be on a project with Dr. Yoon as my advisor and it was a project with his keen interest: electrochemistry of chalcocite with xanthate. I ended up publishing 5 papers from that research with Ron and Yoon. That was 36-38 years ago! Dr. Yoon tells me today that that is still a record for a MS project. Ron visited VTech twice during my stay there (each time for at least 6 months). He was obviously integral to my research. I even helped develop a technique for calculating adsorption isotherms which Ron notes was "impressive" among other words of praise. Of course, I switched to attend the UofUT to be under Dr. Miller. While there, Ron also visited twice (but typically for "just" a month). It was a pleasure catching up with him then let alone any time! When I became Dept Head at MTech, I thought it was best to also bring in visitors and Ron was among the first to attend! It certainly added to our growing research culture on our small campus. Ron only stayed three weeks and a sustained power outage eliminated the last week so off to Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks he and Elspeth went. Ron, Elspeth, my wife Miriam and I became good friends and kept in touch ever since. He had so much knowledge about sulfide flotation and electrochemistry; all those proceedings on the topic with the Electrochemical Society are still well-cited! I am indebted to him and very sad that he is no longer with us. Ron, Godspeed my friend and colleague. I am in your debt but have been lucky enough to pay back through my own students. Thank you for the kinds words during your Gaudin Award lecture. You (and Elspeth) are forever in my (and Miriam's) thoughts. "CHEERS" to you two and your family!
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