Carol Robinson holds the University Chair of Dr. Lee’s Professor of Chemistry and is the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience Discovery at Oxford.  She is recognised for establishing mass spectrometry as a viable technology to study the structure, function and interactions of proteins and their complexes.

Carol graduated from the Royal Society of Chemistry in 1979 and completed her PhD at the Churchill College, University of Cambridge, in two years. She took a career break of eight years to bring up her children and later became the first female Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge (2001-2009).  She has held the Dr. Lee’s Chair in Chemistry since 2009 and is Oxford’s first female Professor of Chemistry.  Her research has attracted numerous international awards and distinctions.  Her most recent awards are: The 2024 EPO European Inventor Lifetime Achievement Award, The 2022 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry, The 2023 John B.Fenn Award for Distinguished Contribution to Mass Spectrometry, The 2022 Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine, and The 2022 European Chemistry Gold Medal from the European Chemistry Society (EuChemS). Carol has 13 Honorary Doctorates, including an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Cambridge in 2024.

Carol was awarded a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 2013 for her contributions to Science and Industry; she is also a former President of the UK Royal Society of Chemistry.