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Richard Robson (chemist)

English and Australian chemist (born 1937) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Richard Robson FAA FRS (born 4 June 1937) is an English and Australian chemist and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne.[2] Robson specialises in coordination polymers, particularly metal-organic frameworks.[3] He has been described as "a pioneer in crystal engineering involving transition metals."[4][5] In 2025, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with Susumu Kitagawa and Omar M. Yaghi for the development of metal-organic frameworks.[6]

Quick facts FAA FRS, Born ...
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Early life and education

Robson was born in Glusburn, West Yorkshire (now North Yorkshire), England, on 4 June 1937.[7][8] He read chemistry at Brasenose College, Oxford,[9] earning a BA in 1959 and a DPhil in 1962.[10][7] His doctoral research, supervised by J.A. Barltrop at the Dyson Perrins Laboratory, focused on the photochemistry of organic molecules.[11][12]

He conducted postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology (1962–64) and Stanford University (1964–65) before accepting a lectureship in chemistry at the University of Melbourne in 1966, where he remained for the rest of his career.[10]

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Research

Richard Robson's groundbreaking research established foundational principles in the field of coordination polymers, particularly for infinite polymeric frameworks—later termed metal–organic frameworks (MOFs).[3][13] His interest in the field was sparked in 1974 while constructing large wooden models of crystalline structures for first-year chemistry lectures.[14]

In the 1990s, Robson created a new class of coordination polymers that underpinned an entire modern field of chemistry.[15] His innovative approach used copper(I), which favours a tetrahedral geometry, in combination with a custom-designed tetranitrile organic linker.[15] This method produced crystalline scaffolds with a diamond-like structure but with significant, engineered void space within the framework.[15]

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Honors and awards

Robson received the Burrows Award from the Inorganic Division of The Royal Australian Chemical Institute in 1998 and was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2000.[16] He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.[17]

Robson shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his early contribution to the field of Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs).

Selected publications

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References

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