Ron Gronsky holds a BS degree (1972) in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and both MS (1974) and PhD (1977) degrees in Engineering from Cal. He became Principal Investigator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in charge of the Atomic Resolution Microscope project and established (with Thomas and Westmacott) the National Center for Electron Microscopy in 1979. He was appointed to the faculty "in-Residence" in 1982, and in 1988 he accepted a senior management position at LBNL as Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences, overseeing four Laboratory Divisions. Later in 1988 he joined the Berkeley faculty full time, serving as Department Chair (1990-96), Chair of the Faculty of the College of Engineering (1998-2002), and Chair of the Berkeley Division of the Academic Senate (2003-2004).

He received the Robert Lansing Hardy Gold Medal from the Metallurgical Society of AIME (1979), the Burton Medal from the Electron Microscopy Society of America (1983), and the Bradley Stoughton Award for Young Teachers of Metallurgy from the American Society for Metals (1985). He is a Fellow of ASM, International (1992), a Distinguished Member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (2002), and a member of the European Academy of Sciences (2002). Former Secretary (1988-1990) and Director of Physical Sciences ((1975-1979) of the Microscopy Society of America (MSA), Dr. Gronsky also served as national Chair (1994-1996) of the University Materials Council. His research contributions extend to many materials, including aerospace alloys, biomaterials, catalysts, magnetic materials, superconductors, semiconductors, ceramics, and polymers.

Professor Gronsky teaches freshman seminars, lower division courses, upper division courses, and graduate courses. Upon nomination by both students and faculty, he received Berkeley's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2001.