Oral history interview with Ivan Maxwell Robinson, 2001 January 24

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Oral history interview with Ivan Maxwell Robinson, 2001 January 24

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/712066065

Ivan Maxwell Robinson begins the interview with a discussion of his family life and education. He was born in the small village of Lakeville, Nova Scotia, where his father ran the general store, and his mother was a school teacher. Around sixth grade, Robinson's family moved to Kentville, Nova Scotia, where Maxwell Robinson attended junior high school and high school. After high school, Robinson earned his bachelors degree in chemistry, with honors in 1941, from Acadia University. He obtained his master's degree in chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1942, and worked briefly for Canadian Industries Ltd. while studying. After a brief term of service in the Royal Canadian Air Force, Robinson returned to college, where he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Purdue University in 1949. Robinson was interviewed by numerous corporations while studying at Purdue University, and decided that DuPont was the best place to do research. Subsequently, he moved his family to Wilmington, Delaware, and joined DuPont as a bench chemist. Robinson worked initially in Frank Gresham's research group trying to make a polyimide from a monoamine. By 1952, he successfully made a high-molecular-weight polyimide from a long-chain diamine. In that same year, Robinson was made a supervisor at DuPont. Robinson's group is credited with numerous chemical innovations, such as coordination polymerization, and copolymers of ethylene-sulfur dioxide. Robinson retired from DuPont as a research chemist in 1981 and joined Indiana University as a visiting scientist. Moreover, Robinson has been teaching genealogy at the Academy of Lifelong Learning for over 10 years. In 2000, Robinson was awarded the Lavoisier Medal for Technical Achievement. Robinson concludes the interview with a discussion of Karl Ziegler's and Giulio Natta's work on propylene polymerization, and its relationship to his group's work at DuPont.

Sound files ; digital, mp3 fileTranscript : (34 leaves) ; 29 cm.

Chemical Heritage Foundation, Othmer Library of Chemical History

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SNAC Resource ID: 8078892

Chemical Heritage Foundation, Othmer Library of Chemical History

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Born in Lakeville, Nova Scotia, Canada on 26 May 1920. Education: B.Sc., chemistry, Acadia University (1940), B.Sc. (Hon), chemistry, Acadia University (1941), M.A, chemistry, University of Toronto (1942), Ph.D., chemistry, Purdue University (1949). Employment: 1949-1981 E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company, Inc.; 1981- Indiana University, Bloomington. From the description of Oral history interview with Ivan Maxwell Robinson, 2001 January 24 (Chemical Heritage Foundation). WorldCat re...