Over the past 30 years, Professor Gregory H. Robinson and his research teams have changed our basic understanding of certain aspects of chemical bonding.
The UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, Robinson’s research focuses on studying problems related to structure and bonding in organometallic compounds, specifically the synthesis, stabilization and structure of compounds with multiple bonds between heavier main group elements.
His work has demonstrated that elements such as aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur can perform some of the same commercially viable chemical transformations as some less abundant and more expensive elements.
Robinson is the 2022-23 Bailar Medalist and Lecturer and presented two lectures on the UIUC campus: "Creative Writing in Scientific Research" on Oct. 3, 2022, and "From N-Heterocyclic Carbenes to Dithiolene Radicals: A Counterintuitive Trek Through Main Group Chemistry" on Oct. 4, 2022.
Robinson has been a faculty member at the University of Georgia since 1995 and has published findings in more than 170-peer reviewed journal articles, written a book, several book chapters, and presented at conferences across the nation and internationally. He completed his PhD in 1984 at the University of Alabama.
The Bailar Medal and Lectures in inorganic chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign commemorate Professor John Christian Bailar, Jr., a member of the faculty at Illinois from 1928 until his death in 1991. Through his research and mentoring, Bailar became known as the father of American coordination chemistry.
In 2021, Robinson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, and in 2017, he was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He also has received the Humboldt Research Award, the American Chemical Society’s F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry, the National Science Foundation’s Award for Special Creativity, the Percy L. Julian Award of the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers, the SEC Faculty Achievement Award and UGA’s Lamar Dodd Research Award.