Donald Baker Robinson: A Biography

Abstract

Donald Robinson was born in Calgary, Alberta on April 3, 1922. In 1927 his family moved to Oliver, B.C. in the Southern Okanagan Valley to engage in fruit farming. He graduated from Oliver High School in 1940 and attended the University of British Columbia. In 1945 he received a BASc in Chemical Engineering. He continued to graduate school and in 1946 received an MASc in Chemical Engineering from U.B.C. He attended the University of Michigan and worked under the supervision of D.L. Katz, a world leader in natural gas technology. Although his thesis was on heat transfer, his interest and enthusiasm for thermodynamics and phase behaviour was stimulated by Professor Katz, and his graduate students such as Riki Kobayashi, John McKetta and Fred Poettmann. Prof. L.O. Case of the Chemistry department taught a course on the phase rule. Don’s first study of gas hydrates was done as a paper for Prof. Case. At Michigan Don met George Govier, who was on leave from the Department of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering of the University of Alberta. Govier was also a graduate of U.B.C. and he encouraged Don to take a position at the University of Alberta as an Assistant Professor in 1948. In Ann Arbor he also met Barbara, who became his wife; they had four daughters. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1949. He advanced in the ranks and became Department Head in 1959. He served as Head/Chairman until 1970. It was a period of rapid growth of the university. He was instrumental in the planning and