Humphrey R. Tonkin (December 2, 1939 –) is professor of English, president emeritus of the University of Hartford in Connecticut, and a dedicated Esperantist. Born in Truro, UK, Tonkin is a dual citizen of the U.K. and the U.S. He earned his undergraduate degree from Cambridge University and his PhD from Harvard University. His academic specialities include the English Renaissance and Edmund Spenser, as well as language use and international languages. As a professor of the University of Pennsylvania, Tonkin in 1970 received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 1974 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for a research year at Oxford University. The years 1980-81 he spent as a guest professor at Columbia University; in 1983 he became president of the Potsdam College of the State University of New York. From 1989 he was president of the University of Hartford. In 2006 he received the Cassandra Pyle Award for Leadership and Collaboration in International Education and Exchange. As an Esperantist, Tonkin has written and translated numerous works in and about the language [1]. Between 1974 and 1980 as well as between 1986 and 1989 he was president of the UEA. In 1983 he was among the founders of the International Academy of Sciences (AIS). Tonkin is one of the editors of the journal Language Problems and Language Planning.
External links
- A biography in English from the University of Hartford
- An image and short article from Virginia Commonwealth University about Tonkin as a guest lecturer
