Professor Robinson presenting the John Fenn Lecture 2023; courtesy IsilSenol - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
Professor Dame Carol Robinson will receive an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Cambridge in a ceremony on 19 June.
Robinson is recognised for establishing mass spectrometry as a viable technology to study the structure, function and interactions of proteins and their complexes.
As a student at Churchill College, Robinson completed her PhD degree here in the early 1980s under the supervision of Professor Dudley Williams. Later she returned to Cambridge and became the department’s first female Professor of Chemistry, a post she held from 2001-2009, also being awarded a Royal Society Research Professorship in 2006.
In 2009 Robinson moved to the University of Oxford, where she is the Dr Lee’s Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery.
Below from left: Jeremy Sanders, Carol Robinson, Dudley Williams and Chris Hunter in the Pfizer Lecture Theatre in the Department in 2008.
Awards
In 2015 Robinson was awarded a L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award for creating a revolutionary method for studying how proteins function, particularly membrane proteins, and establishing a whole new scientific field: gas phase structural biology, which could have a significant impact on medical research.
Recent awards include the 2022 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, the 2022 Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine and the European Chemistry Gold Medal.
Robinson is an International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the Royal Society. She was President of the Royal Society of Chemistry from 2018-2020 and was made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2013 for her contributions to Science and Industry.
Honoris causa
The title ‘Doctor of Science honoris causa’ will be conferred on Robinson under Statute A 11 14 at a Congregation for the conferment of Honorary Degrees on Wednesday 19 June 2024.