J. M. Robson

Infobox_Scientist
name = James Michael ‘Rab’ Robson


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birth_date = 1900
birth_place = Belgium
death_date = 1982
death_place = Canada
nationality = Russian
Jewish
field = Medicine
Genetics
Physicist
work_institution = University of Edinburgh
Guy’s Hospital Medical School
National Research Council of Canada
alma_mater = University of Leeds
known_for = Mutagenesis
Neutron decay

J. M. Robson (1900 - 1982) was a geneticist and physicist who co-founded the science of mutagenesis by mutations in fruit flies exposed to mustard gas, and who first observed neutron beta decay.

Biography

Born in Belgium to a Russian Jewish family, James Michael ‘Rab’ Rabinovich came prior to World War I to England, where he studied medicine at the University of Leeds. He changed his name to Robson in 1929, when appointed assistant to B. P. Wiesner at the Institute of Animal Genetics in the University of Edinburgh. Beginning 1940, along with Charlotte Auerbach and A.J. Clark, Robson discovered that mustard gas could cause mutations in fruit flies, founding the science of mutagenesis. [Charlotte Auerbach & J. M. Robson, "Chemical Production of Mutations", "Nature" 157:302 (1946).] [Charlotte Auerbach, J. M. Robson, & J. G. Carr, " [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/refs/105/2723/243 Chemical Production of Mutations] ", "Science" 105:243-247 (Mar 1947).] [Geoffrey Beale, " [http://www.genetics.org/cgi/reprint/134/2/393 The Discovery of Mustard Gas Mutagenesis by Auerbach and Robson in 1941] ", "Genetics", V134, pp. 393-399 (Jun 1993).] He continued earlier research on sex hormones [J. M. Robson and B. P. Wiesner, " [http://ep.physoc.org/cgi/reprint/21/3/217.pdf The Causation of Mucification and Cornification in the Vagina of the Mouse] ", "Q. J. Exp. Physiol.", V21, pp. 217 (1931).] when he moved to the Pharmacology Department at London’s Guy’s Hospital Medical School in 1946, but grew more interested in the similar effects of exposure to mustard gas with exposure to X-rays. [J. M. Robson, "Rev. Sci. Inst.", V19, p. 865 (1948).] Joining the National Research Council of Canada before 1950, he began his X-ray research, which led to the first experimental observation of neutron beta decay. [J. M. Robson, "The Radioactive Decay of the Neutron", "Physical Review", V77, p. 747(A) (1950).] [J. M. Robson, "The Radioactive Decay of the Neutron", "Physical Review", V78, p. 311 (1950).] [J. M. Robson, "The Radioactive Decay of the Neutron", "Physical Review", V83, N2, pp.349-358 (1951).] Robson remained in Canada, where he died in 1982.

References