British engineer noted for his work in establishing units of electrical measurement.

Jenkin earned the M.A. from the University of Genoa in 1851 and worked for the next 10 years with engineering firms engaged in the design and manufacture of submarine telegraph cables and equipment for laying them. In 1861 his friend William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) procured Jenkin's appointment as reporter for the Committee of Electrical Standards of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He helped compile and publish reports that established the ohm as the absolute unit of electrical resistance and described methods for precise resistance measurements. Jenkin was also professor of engineering at University College, London, and the University of Edinburgh.