Professor Dame Carol Robinson 

Carol Robinson is a Royal Society Research Professor and Doctor Lees Professor Elect at the University of Oxford. She was a graduate student at Churchill College from 1980—1982 completing her PhD in two years. Following an 8 year career break, to begin raising her three children, she returned to research at Oxford, later becoming a titular professor in 2005. In 2001 she returned to Cambridge to continue her research into mass spectrometry and was elected a professorial fellow at Churchill College, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2004 and a Royal Society Research Professor in 2006. In 2009 she was elected Doctor Lees Professor at the University of Oxford.

Her research interests include all aspects of mass spectrometry applied to the elucidation of the3D architecture and structure of macromolecular complexes. Recent highlights from her work include the discovery that membrane protein complexes can be liberated from micelles in the gas phase while retaining their subunits interactions, lipid binding properties and overall topology.

In 2015 she was awarded a L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award for creating a revolutionary method for studying how proteins function, particularly membrane proteins, and establishing a whole new scientific field: gas phase structural biology, which could have a significant impact on medical research.