Frank S Tomkins earned his doctorate in physics from Michigan State University. He was a senior chemist at Argonne National Laboratory near Lemont from 1945 until 1985, and was one of the original members of the Manhattan Project. In 1958, Mr. Tomkins served as the State Department's technical adviser for the U.S. delegation to the Second International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy in Geneva. He traveled extensively in his career, participating in a yearlong Guggenheim fellowship in Bellevue, France, and undertaking projects in Bonn and London. He was a Fellow of the American Physical Society and The Optical Society. Among other awards, he received OSA’s 1977 William F. Meggers Award.

Tomkins passed away in 1999.