Neil Jenkins, who died on 14 October 2007, was the first Professor of Oral Physiology in the UK. Born in Wallasey in 1914, at school he discovered a passion for science. He was among the first to study the newly-established degree in biochemistry at the University of Liverpool, before proceeding to Cambridge where he took his PhD. As an officer of the local branch of the League of Nations Association in Liverpool, on nearby Hilbre Island he met another League of Nations Officer who later became his wife, Olive. In 1945 Neil took up a lectureship in the Physiology Department at Newcastle Medical School, part of King's College in the University of Durham, with special responsibility for teaching dental students. Neil taught physiology and biochemistry as well as a new series of lectures in oral physiology – a subject unknown in other universities at that time. He presented all sides of a disputed topic before presenting his own view of the subject, inspiring to the more able student who enjoyed the intellectual cut and thrust. With the formation of the new University of Newcastle in 1963, a Department of Oral Physiology was created in the Dental School for Neil – now Professor Jenkins. His teaching load was reduced, but his research came into its own, and his PhD students and junior staff received the best possible supervision, many going on to be chairs in their own departments. Neil was a superb ‘ideas’ man. He had a phenomenal memory for previous research, and was constantly looking to propose a new hypothesis to explain some unexpected research data. He retired in 1980, but we knew that Neil would never truly retire, and he and Olive embarked on a series of visiting professorships around the world. Despite the blow of Olive’s death in 1996, Neil continued to pursue his research ideas, as well as throwing his energy into his valuable contribution to humanism. Neil was a man of great scholarship, who gave of his knowledge, advice and support without stint to those who had the good fortune to work under his leadership. His academic legacy is unsurpassed, if viewed in terms of the body of work from his own laboratories, summed with that of the ‘Jenkins family’ of former graduate students and colleagues. Globally, few can have contributed so much to the development and maturity of academic dentistry.