Professor Allan Richard Robinson (1932-2009).
A renowned Oceanographer, Physicist, expert in Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, theoretician, interdisciplinary thinker, and founding figure of synoptic ocean modeling and prediction, Professor Robinson received his bachelors, masters and PhD degrees from Harvard University.
His life’s work has effected the ocean sciences forever. Not only did his work made fundamental advances in our understanding of the oceans; he touched upon a large number of scientists and communities all over the world including our own in the Southcoast.
Allan lived his childhood in Marblehead and Brookline near Boston. Later on he settled with his family in Cambridge and in Boston. He moved to the quite corners at the Head of the Buzzards Bay in the 2000s. From 1968 until 2005, he was the Gordon McKay professor of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics at Harvard. Among his other notable positions, he was the Director of the Center for Earth and Planetary Sciences in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Chairman of the Committee on Oceanography. He was a Guggenheim Fellow at the Cambridge University, received Docteur Honoris Causa from University of Liege, and Doctor of Science Honoris Causa from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. To recognize his many contributions to Ocean Sciences, in 1998, an AGU-ASLO Ocean Sciences Meeting Symposium on “Theory and Modeling of Ocean Circulation, Data Assimilation, and Interdisciplinary Applications: A Tribute to Allan R. Robinson” was held on his 65th birthday. In 2000, he was awarded the “Award for the Merits of Two Worlds” from the European Institute of Cultural Integration. Also, in 2000, Professor Robinson received citations from both the Massachusetts State Senate and House of Representatives for a “lifetime devoted to the affiliation of the primacy of international cooperation within the disciplines of scientific research and education.”
Chancellor Peter Cressy mentioned in his letter to Professor Robinson on January 22, 1997, while appointing him as the first Distinguished Senior Fellow at CMAST “This program is expected to be a major thrust of this campus and of the University for years to come. Dr. Brian Rothschild and I are personally grateful to you for your support and confidence during this complex period of bringing this program to fruition.” Later in 2000, Professor Robinson was awarded an honorary degree from UMass Dartmouth. In accepting the honorary degree, Professor Robinson wrote to Chancellor Cressy on October 16, 1998, “ The several years which span my career in Physics and marine science have been particularly challenging and rewarding because it is at this moment in time that homo sapiens are making substantial progress in understanding the planet upon which he and she live.” It was Professor Robinson who wrote about the importance of a School of Marine science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth in its formative stages, “The establishment of a school has several important ramifications. It indicates the importance of marine science and technology program to several communities: the University, academia generally, industry and government, including funding agencies. It will attract quality graduate students and young scientists, focus their education and research and enhance their morale. It will encourage industrial collaborations by increasing confidence in the quality , strength and stability of the marine science effort. ….. the school will be an important step towards the University of Massachusetts taking its long-awaited place among the leaders of ocean science and technology in the distinguished community of American Public Universities.”
In his illustrious career, which lasted almost fifty years, Professor Robinson had authored and co-authored over 200 articles, books and papers in the field of oceanography and marine science. Some of his seminal contributions to the field of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics include work on the dynamics of rotating and stratified flows, especially with respect to the thin jet theory of the Gulf Stream and its rings; continental shelf waves, and large-scale wind driven ocean circulation. In the 1970s, he chaired and co-chaired multiple international programs which established the existence of oceanic eddies as a primary driver in the open ocean. He is considered to be one of the founders of modern concepts of ocean modeling, prediction and interdisciplinary dynamics. Many of his students and postdocs are now Full Professors and scientists in various leading universities worldwide. Later in the 1990s and in 2000s, he pioneered a collected set of volumes (10, 11, 13, 14 and 15) of “The Sea” for the Global Coastal Ocean, interdisciplinary processes and on Tsunami.
Professor Robinson spent regular hours at CMAST and SMAST between 1995 and 2009 in his capacity of being the Distinguished Senior Fellow. He helped many faculty and students with ideas on research proposals, curriculum development as well as thesis development. He helped secure multiple large grants for SMAST in its formative stage.
He had a strong belief that real progress in research can be made when we think across and beyond the boundaries of individual disciplines — science, technology and society can be brought together to understand the nature in which we live and the which that we impact upon.