RJ-ROBBINS Base Page

Robert J. Robbins is a biologist, an educator, a science administrator, a publisher, an information technologist, and an IT leader and manager who specializes in advancing biomedical knowledge and supporting education through the application of information technology. More About: RJR | OUR TEAM | OUR SERVICES | THIS WEBSITE

Examples of Prior Work

Research:

Advances in Biodiversity: Metagenomics and the Unveiling of Biological Dark Matter

A review paper that examines the profound differences between the eukaryotic and prokaryotic biospheres.

Efforts to harmonize data standards across biodiversity and genomics showed that a basic data atom of biodiversity informatics (the occurrence of an individual organism of a particular species at some point in space and time) cannot describe non-eukaryotic biodiversity, since the eukaryotic ideas of individual organism and species do not work in the prokaryotic realm.

Consulting:

Data Management for LTER: 1980–2010

An assessment of data-management issues associated the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program, supported by NSF.

As part of its third decadal review of the Long Term Ecological Research program, the US National Science Foundation convened a team of experts to assess LTER's activities and progress. Robbins' report on data management issues came out of that review process.

Research & Graphic Arts:

Quantum Biology and Biological Dark Matter: Uprooting This View — and Tree — of Life.

A poster, presented at the Microbial Ecology Gordon Research Conference in Lucca, Italy,

A traditional drawing of the tree of life emphasizes the eukaryota. Classical biology has largely been the study of somatic tissue in multi-cellular eukaryotes. Yet the eukaryotes represent a highly specialized and highly constrained forms of life. Attempts to understand the prokaryotic realm by generalizing from the eukaryotic world cannot succeed.

Web Publishing:

The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project: WWW.ESP.ORG

The ESP website is dedicated to the electronic publishing of scientific and other scholarly materials. Of particular interest are the history of science, genetics, computational biology, and genome research.

Back when the web was new and one could get a three-letter domain name just for asking, Robbins formally created the WWW.ESP.ORG website to make digital copies of classic scientific works generally available. The site has been up continuously for more than 20 years and papers available from it have become integral parts of the curriculum at institutions world wide.

Publishing:

A History of Genetics

In 2001, working together with Nobel Laureate E. B. Lewis and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press (CSHLP), Robbins helped bring Alfred Sturtevant's A History of Genetics back into print.

This account of the early days of genetics is by one who was there. Robbins' desire to add the Sturtevant book to the Electronic Scholarly Publishing (ESP) site led him first to the Sturtevant family, then to Ed Lewis, then to the CSHLP itself, with the result that ESP and CSHLP agreed to produce the book jointly, with complete online and print versions to appear simultaneously.

Meeting Facilitation:

BRIITE: Biomedical Research Institutions Information Technology Exchange

BRIITE meetings are designed to bring together those IT professionals who support biomedical research so that they may exchange ideas and benefit from each others experiences.

In 2001, together with Frank Manion of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, Robbins convened a national meeting to facilitate the exchange of ideas among research-supporting IT professionals. The attendees declared the meetings a complete success and requested that more be organized.

Presentation:

Big Data: Yet Another Buzzword or Actual Big Deal?

A presentation at the 2013 BRIITE meeting, held at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

This presentation, aimed at IT professionals with responsibility for maintaining the IT infrastructure at biomedical research organizations, discussed the exploding world of big data, with emphasis on the emerging datasphere with its big promise for research and its major caveats with regard to the coming impossibility of data de-identification.

Publishing Technology:

Automated Sidenote Creation

As part of his continuing efforts to republish classic papers in science, Robbins has developed a self-contained system for adding sidenote annotation to pre-existing PDF files.

Logically, creating sidenotes is simple. You just need to know what comments to add and where to add them. Technically, creating a PDF file with properly placed comments and marker lines is challenging, especially if the comments need to contain super- or subscripts, or mathematical notation.

Graphic Arts:

The IRO Review

Cover design for the IRO Review, a parody journal covering Institutional Review Boards and similar activities.

During a management retreat at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the head of the Institutional Review Office "won" the opportunity to have Robbins design and prepare a magazine cover for the group. The result is shown above.

Background

Robert Robbins has experience in biology, education, science administration, and information technology: At Michigan State, he taught biology to thousands of university students; at NSF and DOE he served as a program officer in two federal funding agencies; as Director of the Laboratory for Applied Research at Johns Hopkins, he played a key role in developing the information infrastructure of the human genome project; and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center he served as the VP/CIO of a major research organization.

In 1993, he developed a free website (www.esp.org) that is still used by tens of thousands of students and educators world wide. In 2001, he co-founded and currently leads an organization (www.briite.org) that facilitates communication and cooperation among IT professionals at academic biomedical research organizations.

Currently, Robbins is involved in several biology projects, including the UCSD-hosted, NSF-funded Research Coordinating Network for the Genomic Standards Consortium project that is intended to facilitate the extension of genomic and metagenomic data standards into fields such as biodiversity and community ecology.

RJR Experience and Expertise

Researcher

Robbins holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in the life sciences. He served as a tenured faculty member in the Zoology and Biological Science departments at Michigan State University. He is currently exploring the intersection between genomics, microbial ecology, and biodiversity — an area that promises to transform our understanding of the biosphere.

Educator

Robbins has extensive experience in college-level education: At MSU he taught introductory biology, genetics, and population genetics. At JHU, he was an instructor for a special course on biological database design. At FHCRC, he team-taught a graduate-level course on the history of genetics. At Bellevue College he taught medical informatics.

Administrator

Robbins has been involved in science administration at both the federal and the institutional levels. At NSF he was a program officer for database activities in the life sciences, at DOE he was a program officer for information infrastructure in the human genome project. At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he served as a vice president for fifteen years.

Technologist

Robbins has been involved with information technology since writing his first Fortran program as a college student. At NSF he was the first program officer for database activities in the life sciences. At JHU he held an appointment in the CS department and served as director of the informatics core for the Genome Data Base. At the FHCRC he was VP for Information Technology.

Publisher

While still at Michigan State, Robbins started his first publishing venture, founding a small company that addressed the short-run publishing needs of instructors in very large undergraduate classes. For more than 20 years, Robbins has been operating The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project, a web site dedicated to the digital publishing of critical works in science, especially classical genetics.

Speaker

Robbins is well-known for his speaking abilities and is often called upon to provide keynote or plenary addresses at international meetings. For example, in July, 2012, he gave a well-received keynote address at the Global Biodiversity Informatics Congress, sponsored by GBIF and held in Copenhagen. The slides from that talk can be seen HERE.

Facilitator

Robbins is a skilled meeting facilitator. He prefers a participatory approach, with part of the meeting involving dynamic breakout groups, created by the participants in real time: (1) individuals propose breakout groups; (2) everyone signs up for one (or more) groups; (3) the groups with the most interested parties then meet, with reports from each group presented and discussed in a subsequent plenary session.

Designer

Robbins has been engaged with photography and design since the 1960s, when he worked for a professional photography laboratory. He now prefers digital photography and tools for their precision and reproducibility. He designed his first web site more than 20 years ago and he personally designed and implemented this web site. He engages in graphic design as a hobby.

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This is a must read book for anyone with an interest in invasion biology. The full title of the book lays out the author's premise — The New Wild: Why Invasive Species Will Be Nature's Salvation. Not only is species movement not bad for ecosystems, it is the way that ecosystems respond to perturbation — it is the way ecosystems heal. Even if you are one of those who is absolutely convinced that invasive species are actually "a blight, pollution, an epidemic, or a cancer on nature", you should read this book to clarify your own thinking. True scientific understanding never comes from just interacting with those with whom you already agree. R. Robbins

Collection of publications by R J Robbins

Reprints and preprints of publications, slide presentations, instructional materials, and data compilations written or prepared by Robert Robbins. Most papers deal with computational biology, genome informatics, using information technology to support biomedical research, and related matters.

Research Gate page for R J Robbins

ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a study by Nature and an article in Times Higher Education , it is the largest academic social network in terms of active users.

Curriculum Vitae for R J Robbins

short personal version

Curriculum Vitae for R J Robbins

long standard version