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{{Infobox scientist |name = Barry Robson |image = | image_size = 180px |birth_date = (1940-11-20) November 20, 1940 |birth_place = |citizenship = United_Kingdom, United States |nationality = [[United Kingdom|England |field = Computational_Chemistry, Biophysics, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Informatics |work_institutions = University of Manchester, Proteus International plc, The Dirac Foundation, Gryphon Sciences, MDL Information Systems, Thomas_J._Watson_Research_Center of IBM, IBM Global Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, & Life Sciences, St Matthews University, University of Wisconsin-Stout, Quantal Semantics |alma_mater = Technion, Weizmann Institute |known_for = computational enzymology, electrostatics, enzyme catalysis |distinctions = Member of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of the Biophysical Society }} Barry Robson is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Southern California. He is known for his work on computational biochemistry and biophysics, and, in particular, for having pioneered computer simulations of the function of biological systems, and for developing what is now known as Computational Enzymology.

Barry Robson was born in Northern England in 1947. He was a pioneer in bioinformatics, protein modeling, and computer-aided drug design, according to a biography by correspondent Brendan Horton in the journal Nature [1], and is the author of some 250 published papers patents in protein science, bioinformatics, drug design, nantotechnological chemical synthesis, data mining, automated inference, and healthcare information technology. He studied for his PhD under experimental protein folding scientist Professor Roger H. Pain, who was in turn studied under Charles Tanford [2], a founder of that field. Barry Robson’s PhD thesis was by research into how protein achieve their three dimensional structure, and was in two parts, experimental protein folding and protein structure prediction. The latter prediction part in particular led to a substantial number of publications by Pain and Robson, and later by Robson with several other coworkers, including Dr Jean Garnier of the Institutut National de la Recherche Agronomique. The work with Jean Garnier and Barry Robson’s own PhD student David J. Osguthorpe led to the widely used GOR method [3] of secondary structure predictions, named after the initials of the authors. Barry Robson carried out his postdoctoral work jointly under Roger Pain and Professor Shneior Lifson of the Chemical Physics Department of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and later under Sir David Phillips at the University of Oxford, while also a lecturer and Reader at the University of Manchester School of Medicine. He received a DSc, a higher UK doctorate, by the University of Manchester in 1984, typically awarded for international recognition. There he also held visiting professorial or equivalent positions professorial positions at the Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique, Universty of South Paris, the Technical University of Denmark. Around 1987 he was scientific founder of the Proteus group of companies concerned with the design, synthesis and testing of biopharmaceuticals, which he helped take successfully to the London Stock Exchange in 1990 as Proteus International plc. At Proteus he designed and initially led design of the Prometheus Expert System for peptide and drug design, later sold to Tularik for the equivalent of approximately nine million US dollars. Proteus International became Protherics plc by acquisition of Therapeutic Antibodies of New Jersey in 1999, which is currently UK and US divisions of the British Technology Group, BTG plc [ 4]. He collaborated in protein modeling with Proteus colleagues Nobel Laureate Peter Mitchell [5], and Knight of Denmark Rodney Cotterill [6] who inspired his interest in Artificial Intelligence. Also in 1994 he founded The Dirac Foundation Oxfordshire UK, in honor of Nobel Laureate physicist Paul A. M. Dirac [7] with permission of his widow Mrs. Margit Dirac, to promote Professor Dirac’s mathematical ideas for applications in human and veterinary medicine. He moved to California around 1995 to assist in biopharmaceutical and bioinformatics start-up ventures while Visiting Scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine [ 8], notably as Chief Scientific Officer of Gryphon Sciences [ 9 ] later acquired by SmithKlein Beecham [10], and as Principal Scientist at MDL Information Systems [11]. In the latter he assisted in acquisition and development of software and markets for a bioinformatics system sold for several million US dollars to Perkin-Elmer [12], that shortly became the holding company of Celera Genomics [13] that completed a first draft of the human genome. In 1998 he accepted the position as Strategic Advisor in IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center at Yorktown Heights, NY [14], where he received the title of IBM Distinguished Engineer. During that period he also held the position of Professorial Lecturer at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York City. At IBM he was instrumental in projects leading to IBM’s protein folding project and the development of Blue Gene [15], and in healthcare information technology, for which he received the IBM recognition award in Clinical Genomics and the Asklepios Award for Outstanding vision in the Future of Healthcare Technology conference at the Massechusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, and a press release from the American Chemical Society in regard to a related publication. After six years he became Chief Scientific Officer IBM Global Healthcare, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences, a position that he held for five years. Barry currently resides in Grand Cayman as University Director of Research at the Schools of Medicine and Veterinary Science, and as Professor of Biostatistics, Epidemiology [16], and Evidence Based Medicine. He continues as Chief Executive Officer of The Dirac Foundation, and holds a position as Distinguished Scientist in the Department of Computer Science in the University of Wisconsin-Stout [17]. He is also Chief Scientific Officer of Quantal Semantics Inc., North Carolina, developing technologies in secure privacy, consent, data mining and decision support in regard to healthcare and business in Cloud computer systems and the Internet.

Research Achievements

His contributions include the following:

External links

Category:Living people Category:1940 births Category:Israeli emigrants to the United States Category:Harvard University people Category:American biochemists Category:University of Southern California faculty