Early life and education He was born at Rufford House Farm, near
Chesterfield, Derbyshire the son of James Bradbury Robinson, a maker of surgical dressings, and his wife, Jane Davenport. Robinson went to school at the
Chesterfield Grammar School and the private
Fulneck School. He then studied chemistry at the
University of Manchester, graduating BSc in 1905. 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 then took up the Chair in Organic Chemistry at the
University of Liverpool (1915–20) and following this became the Director of Research at the
British Dyestuffs Corporation. He was briefly at
St Andrews University (1921–22) and then took the Chair of Organic Chemistry at
Manchester University, previously held by
Arthur Lapworth and
William Henry Perkin Jr.. Like Lapworth and Perkin, Robinson presented a paper (The Conjugation of Partial Valencies) to the
Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. In 1928 he moved from there to be a professor at
University College London where he stayed only two years. He was the
Waynflete Professor of Chemistry at
Oxford University from 1930 and a Fellow of
Magdalen College, Oxford. Robinson was elected an International Member of the United States
National Academy of Sciences in 1934, an International Member of the
American Philosophical Society in 1944, and an International Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1948.
Robinson Close, in the
Science Area at
Oxford, is named after him, as is the Robert Robinson Laboratory at the
University of Liverpool, the Sir Robert Robinson Laboratory of Organic Chemistry at the
University of Manchester 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; in which he lost his game to pioneering computer scientist
I. J. Good. He was president of the
British Chess Federation from 1950 to 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 for
atropine &
benzatropine) 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
St 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.
Robinson annulation has had application in the
total synthesis of steroids. Alongside
Edward Charles Dodds, Robinson had also been involved in the original synthesis of
diethylstilboestrol. In 1946 he determined the structure of
strychnine. In 1957 Robinson founded the journal
Tetrahedron with fifty other editors for
Pergamon Press. ==Publications==