Background
Robinson, Robert was born on September 13, 1886. Son of Warner Brothers Robinson.
Robinson, Robert was born on September 13, 1886. Son of Warner Brothers Robinson.
Educated U. Manchester. Doctor of Science, universities Liverpool, London, Wales, Sheffield, Belfast, Delhi, Cambridge, Nottingham, Bristol, Oxford, Sydney. Doctor of Laws, universities Birmingham, Edinburgh, Saint Andrews, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester.
Honorary Doctor, universities Paris, Madrid, Zagreb.
In 1947, he also received the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. Born at Rufford Farm, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Robinson went to school at the Chesterfield Grammar School, the private Fulneck School and the University of Manchester. In 1907 he was awarded an 1851 Research Fellowship from the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 to continue his research at the University of Manchester.
He was appointed as the first Professor of Pure and Applied Organic Chemistry in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney in 1912.
He was the Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University from 1930 and a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. Robinson Close in the Science Area at Oxford is named after him, as is the Robert Robinson Laboratory at the University of Liverpool and the Robinson and Cornforth Laboratories at The University of Sydney.
Robinson was a strong amateur chess player. He represented Oxford University in a friendly match with a team from Bletchley Park in December 1944.
He lost his game to pioneering computer scientist I. J. Good.
He was president of the British Chess Federation from 1950-1953, and with Raymond Edwards he co-authored the book The Art and Science of Chess (Batsford, 1972). Research
His synthesis of tropinone, a precursor of cocaine, in 1917 was not only a big step in alkaloid chemistry but also showed that tandem reactions in a one-pot synthesis are capable of forming bicyclic molecules. He invented the symbol for benzene having a circle in the middle whilst working at Street Andrews University in 1923.
He is known for inventing the use of the curly arrow to represent electron movement, and he is also known for discovering the molecular structures of morphine and penicillin.
In 1957 Robinson founded the journal Tetrahedron with fifty other editors for Pergamon Press. Robinson annulation has had application in the total synthesis of steroids.
Fellow Royal Society, Royal Institute Chemistry, Weizmann Institute Science Rehovot, Israel (honorary). Member National Academy Sciences (Washington), American Academy Arts and Sciences (Boston), American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia), Society Chemical Industry (president 1958-1959), British Association Advancement of Science (president 1955). Member Chemists.
Married Gertrude Walsh, 1912 (deceased. Married second, Stearn South. Hillstrom, 1957.
