Paul Robinson received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Southern Illinois University in 1961 and 1963, respectively. He spent the next two years as an employee of the Iowa State Geological Survey before returning to Southern Illinois University to pursue a Ph.D. degree in crystallography/mineralogy under the guidance of his mentor, Professor F. Donald Bloss. Although the requirements for the degree were completed during 1965-67, the promised Ph.D. program was not approved. Rather than follow his mentor to Virginia Polytechnical Institute to consummate his terminal degree, Paul accepted a position as Instructor in the Department of Geology at Southern Illinois University in 1967 so that he could continue to work with Professor Jen-Ho Fang in the exciting and rapidly expanding field of x-ray crystal structure analysis. He was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1972 (with tenure), to Associate Scientist in 1982 and to Senior Scientist in 1989. He officially retired in 1993 but returned to SIUC as a part-time Senior Scientist where he produced and published crystal-structure papers in cooperation with various chemists. He retired fully in July of 2005 but plans to remain active in the crystallographic community.
Paul is currently a Co-editor of Acta Crystallographica, Section C. He is also a Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America and a frequent manuscript referee for various journals.
When not at the computer or in the lab, Paul enjoys spending time with his family, sports of all kinds, fiddling with any kind of electronic gizmo, walking, birding, reading and traveling.
Last updated: 13-July-05 / pdr