On the occasion of Lyle Jensen's retirement from the University of Washington in 1986 a symposium in honor of his contributions to the field of crystallography was organized by Ellie Adman, Ron Stenkamp, Larry Sieker and Hugh Stout. The subject of the symposium was chosen because of Lyle's long involvement in obtaining the most he could out of his data, which led to his work being among the first to visualize hydrogen atoms in small molecule structures using X-ray data, and among the first to refine protein structures (rubredoxin) and again, visualize hydrogen atoms.

Speakers and attendees included past members of Lyle's research group as well as colleagues of his from the US, England, Norway, and France. The three sessions were Precision in X-ray Scattering and Small Structures, Precision in Protein and Nucleic Acid Structures, and Correlates of Precision: Where the Structures Lead. The meeting was supported by NIH, NSF, Upjohn, as well as the Departments of Biological Structure & Biochemistry at the University of Washington.