Rob Robinson Retires in 2001

Stories about Dr. Robinson

Dr. Robert L. Robinson Retires!

No matter which Dr. Rob you knew, each was an excellent teacher.  More to come.  Feel free to send an anecdote about the Dr. Rob you remember to Dr. Russ Rhinehart at his email address rrr@okstate.edu. 

Dr. Rob: A Class Act

Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering and Amoco Chair holder Robert Robinson is looking forward to the extra time his retirement will give him for personal activities. High on his list is spending more time with his family, especially his wife, Gayle, and their new grandson, Jack Glenn. He also hopes to perfect his golf game and catch up on “fun” reading. But, he will miss interacting with his colleagues and students on a daily basis, and they will miss him.

“Professor Robinson is a class act in every respect,” says Khaled Gasem, professor chemical engineering. “He is literally the teacher’s teacher, a highly respected world-class researcher, a dedicated mentor and a top-notch administrator. Beyond his technical prowess and scholarship, Professor Robinson is a gentleman whose caring and friendship extends generously to all his colleagues, students and co-workers.”

“OSU has been exceedingly fortunate to have ‘Dr. Rob’ as part of the faculty. He is a people-oriented teacher and leader who prepares both lectures and plans so that others will be successful,” says Russ Rhinehart, head of the School of Chemical Engineering. “His personal accomplishments in teaching, research and service have been many, characterized by quality and have been sustained throughout his 36-year career as a faculty member.”

Robinson served as head of the School of Chemical Engineering from 1987-1996. He says his proudest accomplishment at the helm was the school’s hiring of six of its current faculty members: Gasem, Alan Tree, Marty High, Karen High, Rob Whiteley and Randy Lewis, who make up more than half of the present faculty. Collectively, the group has received almost every award available at the college and university levels, and several of them are now nationally recognized.

From a legacy standpoint, his tenure saw the establishment of several endowments, including the Edward E. Bartlett chair, the R.N. Maddox Professorship by the Gas Processors Suppliers Association, the Don Cox Endowed Faculty Development Program and two endowed graduate fellowship supplements, the Lyman Yarborough and John B. West endowments.

“We are grateful for the excellent school that developed in his nine years as head; students, faculty and staff alike share the pride in his legacy,” Rhinehart says. Colleagues also say the quality of the undergraduate program continued to improve throughout Robinson’s tenure and that he led the school in aggressively recruiting the very best students.

Robinson says working with students as a teacher was probably the highlight of his career. “Classroom instruction is very exciting, since it allows you to see students making rapid progress in developing their abilities. It’s a great feeling to be a part of that process.”

In addition to his reputation as a fine teacher and administrator, Robinson’s research in various areas of thermodynamics and phase behavior has earned him wide recognition. His has focused on studying the way in which mixtures of chemicals, such as oil, behave and how to best use those properties to produce the most valuable products and to design and optimize processes to produce chemicals and energy sources for society’s consumption.

A registered professional engineer and a Fellow of AIChE, Robinson has secured approximately $4 million in research funding during his career.

In retirement, Robinson plans to continue his 20-year association with BPAmoco by occasionally teaching in-house courses on petroleum fluid behavior. In addition, he will continue to serve as chairman of the chemical engineering program at the National Technological University, which offers distance delivery of master’s degrees in engineering. He also hopes to continue to contribute to the high quality of OSU’s chemical engineering instruction by teaching a course or two, as requested.