Brian Robinson, New Zealand inorganic chemist, Dead

  Reseacher

Brian Harford Robinson died on August 30, 2016.

He was a New Zealand inorganic chemist.

Harford Robinson noted for his contribution to cluster chemistry and the design of organometallic compounds with biomedical applications.

He was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago in Dunedin from 1967 to 2006.

Robinson became a professor in 1985 and the Mellor Professor of Chemistry in 1996.

When he retired in 2006, Brian was made a professor emeritus.

Trying to build on his doctoral research, Robinson proposed that metal carbonyl clusters could participate in electron transfer reactions, and demonstrated that clusters are able to be reversibly reduced.

His other research areas that he pursued included the design of organometallic compounds for use in biomedical research and the development of molecular switches.

After his retirement, Robinson continued to be an active researcher, including work to develop a post-surgical protective gel based on chitosan from squid.

He died in Wellington.

Brian Robinson passed away in 2016.