Obituary – Dennis Hine

It is with regret that we record the death of Dennis Hine on 15 June 2007 at the age of 80. Hine joined the Packaging and Allied Trades Research Association (which subsequently became Pira( at the age of 27 and remained with Pira until his retirement. Hine was a gifted scientist with a natural interest in understanding the world around him. He pioneered the development of test instruments that simulated and quantified packaging machine operations, for example, adhesive bonding, film runnability, crease stiffness and carton opening. Test instruments designed by Hine continue to be manufactured and sold around the world. He is particularly noted for his research on carton quality and machine–material interaction during the 1960s and the 1970s. His research reports in this field continue to be cited, and he was awarded a fellowship at the Institute of Packaging in recognition of his contribution to packaging science. The understanding of carton quality developed by Hine is widely applied today and is the basis for the only national standard for crease quality. As well as authoring many technical reports and papers, in his retirement Hine also wrote the textbook Cartons and Cartoning. Hine was awarded a special degree in physics by the London University in 1947, and then worked during the later war years at the Research Association of British Rubber Manufacturers in Croydon on war‐related work. After the war, he was allowed to present his work as a thesis, for which he was awarded a master's degree. Hine had a genuine fascination with understanding the world around him, and he approached research and investigation with enthusiasm tempered only by a highly structured and analytical approach. These qualities can be seen in his personal as well as professional life through his final years, where he took a serious interest in understanding the treatment of his cancer. Dennis Hine is survived by his wife Grace, his three children and four grandchildren.