Harold Roper Robinson FRS (1889-1955) was a physicist and, in later life, an outstanding figure in university administration.[1]
Robinson was born in Ulverston, Lancashire on 26 November 1889, the eldest of four brothers and one sister. In 1908 he went to Manchester University on a scholarship. Between 1908 and 1921, he was successively undergraduate, research student, Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator, Senior Assistant Lecturer in Physics and Assistant Director of the Physical Laboratory at Manchester.[1]
During World War I, he worked with Lawrence Bragg on soundranging.[2]
The citation on his election to Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1929 reads: "Before 1914 he carried out a series of researches into the nature of Beta-rays and other problems of radio activity. Distinguished also by his recent work on the energies of X-ray levels, as deduced from the velocities of secondary corpuscular rays, on which important branch of atomic physics he has obtained world-wide recognition as one of the pioneers."[3][4]
"Professor Robinson came to Queen Mary College, University of London, from University College, Cardiff, as Head of the Physics Department. He is acknowledged as one of the greatest of Rutherford's collaborators. He devised and developed the techniques of X-ray photoelectric spectroscopy and X-ray emission spectroscopy which became valuable tools in chemical analysis. Arising from this work he also deduced the then most accurate values of ratios of atomic constants."[3]
In 1942, he delivered the first Rutherford Memorial Lecture.[5]
He was appointed Vice-Principal of Queen Mary College in 1946.[3]
He decided to retire in 1953,[3] but took the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of London (1954-1955).[1]