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Stephen W. Wilkins

Australian scientist

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ110837213 ↗
Source-derived summary

Stephen William Wilkins (February 15, 1946 - March 25, 2013) was an Australian physicist known for his contributions to the field of Phase-contrast X-ray imaging.

Biography

Wilkins' parents were originally from Brno, Czechoslovakia, but emigrated and came to Australia in 1939. Wilkins attended Preshil, The Margaret Lyttle Memorial School in Kew. Wilkins grew up in Melbourne and studied for a BSc in physics and mathematics between 1964 and 1967 at the University of Melbourne. He got his PhD in 1972 at the same university with a thesis titled "Correlations and Interactions in Binary Alloys". In 1975, he became a research scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). He advanced to eventually become Chief Research Scientist in 1998.

Wilkins unexpectedly died from a heart attack on March 25, 2013.

Research

Wilkins is perhaps best known for his work on phase-contrast X-ray imaging (PCXI). His article on PCXI with laboratory, i.e.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Stephen W. Wilkins” is australian scientist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Stephen, Wilkins and Australian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1946, 2013, 1939, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1946-02-15. For this dossier, Stephen, Wilkins and Australian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “australian scientist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q110837213. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2013, 1939 and 1964.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stephen W. Wilkins”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stephen W. Wilkins primary sources, Stephen W. Wilkins archive and Stephen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stephen W. Wilkins”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Stephen W. Wilkins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.