Robinson

Rob studied astronomy as an undergraduate at The University of Arizona. However, he had "more physics credits than any physics major that graduated that year. It wasn't astronomy instead of physics, it was astronomy in addition to physics," he says and stresses the importance of understanding the laws that govern our world.

Upon graduation, Rob came to The University of Texas at Austin where he received his Ph.D. in 1973 under the tutelage of Brian Warner, Ed Nather, and Paul vanden Bout. Afterwards, Rob was the Miller Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of California at Santa Cruz for a year. He then returned to Texas as an assistant professor where he has since become the William B. Blakemore II Regents Professor in Astronomy.

Rob's research interests have been varied throughout his career. He has studied pulsating white dwarf stars, cataclysmic variable stars, and neutron stars. Currently, he is most interested in studying black holes in binary star systems. He says that studying these binary systems is the best method current to determine one of the fundamental attributes of a black hole -- its mass.

Edward L. Robinson
William B. Blakemore II Regents Professor of Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D., Astronomy, University of Texas at Austin
B.A., Astronomy, University of Arizona