Though Len never finished his formal education, he can stand beside many in the scientific world today. With his research as a living testimony to the worth of external study.

While writing my book on Lightning Ridge, I spent quite a lot of time with Len in his laboratory. I quickly learned that he was a profound thinking person with a strong analytical mind. Among Len’s many achievements since I have known him is a PhD.

In his subdued manner of research, Len has cut such a path through the wilderness of amorphous silica science such that scientists from Australia and worldwide continue to make contact with him, even from as far away as France and the U.S.S.R. He has unlocked many of the mysteries of the origin of Australian opals and so much so that professors of science have written to him seeking his knowledge on certain aspects of opals.