J. M. Robson

Life

Born in Belgium to a Russian Jewish family on 31 December 1900 (according to the Royal Society of Edinburgh)

In 1940, along with Charlotte Auerbach and A.J. Clark, he discovered that mustard gas could cause mutations in fruit flies, founding the science of mutagenesis. when he moved to the Pharmacology Department of Guy's Hospital Medical School, London in 1946, but grew more interested in the similar effects of exposure to mustard gas with exposure to X-rays. Robson's pharmacological research paved the way for the development of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s. While there he undertook research on the effects of gonadotrophins in pregnancy, and also supervised the Pregnancy Diagnosis Station that had been founded by the Institute's director Professor Francis Crew.

In 1932 he received an honorary doctorate (DSc) from the University of Edinburgh,

In 1946 he moved to London as a Reader in Pharmacology at Guy's Hospital Medical School, and was given a professorship there in 1950.

He retired in 1968, and was made Emeritus Professor at Guys. He died in London on 18 February 1982 aged 81.

Publications Recent Advances in Sex and Reproductive Physiology (1934) Recent Advances in Pharmacology (1950)

Family Robson married Sarah Benjamin in September 1930 in Leeds.