It is with much sadness that we announce the passing of Prof Trefor Jenkins who passed away on 2 July 2025, just shy of his 93rd birthday. Prof Jenkins was a founding Member of the Academy (1995) and recipient of the inaugural ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medal in 2003. He features in the Academy’s “Legends of South African Science” publication (2017) where he is characterised as a good man in Africa, a descriptor that perfectly captures his character and impact.
TREFOR JENKINS
(24 July 1932, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales – 2 July 2025, Johannesburg, South Africa)
Trefor Jenkins was a pioneer in South Africa in the fields of clinical genetics, population genetics and biomedical ethics. In 1975 he became the first incumbent of the newly established chair of Human Genetics and enthusiastically drove the establishment and growth of the Division of Human Genetics at Wits. He made outstanding contributions to the knowledge of genetic variation in African populations and established genetic diagnostic services for cytogenetics, biochemical genetics and molecular genetics, augmented by genetic counselling services for patients and their families. In addition, Jenkins established an undergraduate teaching programme in human genetics and medical ethics at Wits.
As a human rights activist, he was one of six doctors who in 1977, challenged the South African medical establishment after the death in detention of Steve Bantu Biko, the Black Consciousness leader. Jenkins was awarded the prestigious Benjamin Pogrund Medal in 1998 for advancing the cause of non-racialism at Wits.
Born and raised in Wales, Trefor Jenkins moved to London to study medicine at King’s College, University of London and Westminster Hospital. After graduating in 1956, he took a position in the Royal Army Medical Corps, then one with the South Wales Regional Hospital Board, for a short time. He emigrated to Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) in 1960, to take up a post as medical officer at the Wankie Colliery Hospital. There he first came across sickle cell anaemia which stimulated his life-long interest in both haematology and genetics. With a young family he later moved to South Africa to work firstly in a Durban hospital and then in Johannesburg at the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School, with Professor Philip Tobias, in Anatomy.
In 1965 Jenkins was appointed as a pathologist at the South African Institute for Medical Research (SAIMR). After spending a year at Case Western Reserve University in the USA, working with Arthur Steinberg, famous for his work on the genetics of the immunoglobulins, he returned to South Africa in 1969 to take up the position of head of the Human Serogenetics Unit at the SAIMR and part-time lecturer in human genetics in the Department of Anatomy. He was awarded an MD (Lond) in 1973 and became a specialist pathologist in the field of haematology, registered with the SA Medical and Dental Council, the same year.
In 1977 Jenkins was awarded a SAMRC unit, The Human Ecogenetics Research Unit, funded for three successive five-year periods. Through the work of the unit, knowledge of genetic disorders in South African populations grew and Jenkins had the foresight to establish one of the first molecular genetics laboratories in the country. He and his colleagues played a pioneering role in adopting and applying molecular genetic technologies to research into the aetiology, diagnosis and prevention of inherited disorders in southern Africa.
Jenkins occupied many positions of leadership, and his work has been recognised through a host of academic distinctions and prizes, which include election to the Galton Institute in London, the Royal Society of South Africa and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He was one of the founding members of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) as well as a founding member and the first chair of the Southern African Society for Human Genetics. He received a Silver Medal from the SAMRC, the Biology Centennial Award for Science and Humanity from Case Western Reserve University and the inaugural ASSAf Science-for-Society Gold Medal Award in 2003. He received honorary degrees from the University of Cardiff, UCT (DSc) and Wits (MD, 2005).
Jenkins wrote and co-wrote close to 350 scientific publications, as well as book chapters, monographs, editorials and book reviews in the areas of human genetics, medical ethics and health and epidemiology. He co-authored three books, Health and the Hunter-Gatherer: Biomedical Studies on the Hunting and Gathering Populations of Southern Africa (George T Nurse and Trefor Jenkins [1977]), The Peoples of Southern Africa and Their Affinities (JS Weiner, George T Nurse, and Trefor Jenkins [1986]), and A Search for Origins: Science, History and South Africa’s ‘Cradle of Humankind’ (Phillip Bonner, Trefor Jenkins, Amanda Esterhuysen [2008]).
After his retirement in 1998, Jenkins was appointed Emeritus Professor and Honorary Professorial Research Fellow. During this time, he played a major role in the establishment of the Institute for Human Evolution (now the Evolutionary Studies Institute) in 2004 and acted as interim director until 2009. In 2013, a Festschrift was published in the South African Medical Journal as a tribute to Trefor Jenkins by his colleagues and former students and mentees.
Professor Trefor Jenkins has trained, mentored and inspired many scientists and medical geneticists, many of whom hold senior positions in South Africa and around the world. He has, through his questioning mind, decades of energy and enthusiasm for rigorous research in human genetics and his concern about ethical and moral issues, left us a legacy of inspiration to question our actions and to treat our fellow humans with respect and dignity.
Professor Jenkins is survived by his 4 children, 9 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren.
Further tribute: