Ron Gronsky received his BS in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh in 1972 (Magna Cum Laude), and his MS and PhD in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1974 and 1977, respectively.

Following a two year post-doctoral appointment at the Materials and Molecular Research Division of LBNL, he became a Principal Investigator in charge of the Atomic Resolution Microscope project at the National Center for Electron Microscopy in 1979. This microscope sustained the best imaging resolution of any transmission electron microscope in the world for the next decade. During 1979 he was awarded the Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal by the Metallurgical Society of AIME. In 1982 he was appointed Associate Professor-in-Residence in the Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering, U.C. Berkeley. He was awarded the Burton Medal by the Electron Microscopy Society of America in 1983, named one of "America's 100 Brightest Scientists Under 40" by Science Digest Magazine in 1984, and given the Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers of Metallurgy by the American Society for Metals in 1985. Since 1976 he has won six medals in the annual International Metallographic Society Exhibit competition, including a first place in the "Transmission Electron Microscopy" category. In 1988 he accepted full-time appointment to the faculty of the Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering. During the year 1988-89, he served in the senior management of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences, overseeing four Laboratory Divisions. In July of 1990, he was appointed Chairman of the Department of Materials Science and Mineral Engineering on the Berkeley Campus, a position he held until June of 1996. In 1992 he was elected a Fellow of ASM, International, and in 1995, he was named a "Distinguished Alumnus" of the University of Pittsburgh . Also in 1995, he was named the recipient of the prestigious Arthur C. and Phyllis G. Oppenheimer Chair in Advanced Materials Analysis at Berkeley. Around the Berkeley campus, Professor Gronsky serves as Chair of the Program Committee for the historical renovation of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building under the New Materials Initiative. He is also the current Chair (1997-98) of the Academic Senate's Committee on Privilege & Tenure and the instructor of record in three courses this semester (Fall, '97).

Former Secretary (1988-1990) of the Electron Microscopy Society of America (EMSA), Dr. Gronsky is also a member of ASM, International (the Materials Information Society), The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), the Materials Research Society (MRS), the Microbeam Analysis Society (MAS), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), and Sigma Xi. He recently served as 1994-96 national Chair of the University Materials Council and he currently holds the position (through 1997) of Director of Physical Sciences on the Executive Council of the Microscopy Society of America. He also serves on the Engineering Board of Visitors at Duke University, the Materials Research Laboratory Review Board at Penn State University, recent Chair of the External Review Committee of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at Cornell University and current member of the Board of Visitors of the Department of Materials Science & Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh (1997-99).

Dr. Gronsky's research contributions span the study of aerospace alloys, biomaterials, nanostructured catalysts, and electronic materials and devices. He is author or co-author of over 240 technical publications. His avocations are poetry, classic cars and electric blues guitar.