Richard Robson (born 4 June 1937) is a Professor of Chemistry at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb nor ...

. Robson has published over 200 articles, specialising in

coordination polymers A coordination polymer is an inorganic or organometallic polymer structure containing metal cation centers linked by ligands. More formally a coordination polymer is a coordination compound with repeating coordination entities extending in 1, 2, o ...

, particularly metal-organic frameworks. He has been described as "a pioneer in crystal engineering involving

transition metals In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. They are the elements that can ...

Education

Robson was born in Glusburn in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

in the UK, and read chemistry at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

(BA 1959, DPhil 1962). He undertook postdoctoral research at California Institute of Technology 1962-64 and at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

1964-65, before receiving a Lectureship in chemistry at the University of Melbourne 1966-70 where he remained for the duration of his career.

Recognition

Professor Robson is a recipient of the prestigious Burrows Award, Inorganic Division of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute 1998 and was made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science 2000. In 2022 he was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

References

1937 births Living people English emigrants to Australia Alumni of the University of Oxford Australian materials scientists Australian chemists Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Fellows of the Royal Society {{chemist-stub