William Jacob Robbins records

William Jacob Robbins (1890-1978), distinguished leader of American science, was the fourth Director-in-Chief of the New York Botanical Garden, serving during the World War II and post-war periods (1937-58). Following the directorships of Elmer Drew Merrill (1930-1935) and Marshal Avery Howe (1935-1936), Robbins served longer than any director since Nathaniel Lord Britton. In his 20-year tenure as director Robbins guided the NYBG through a difficult period of financial distress. In the process he placed microbiological research as a major track in the garden's mission, while continuing to support botanical exploration and floristic study. He held a concurrent appointment as Professor of Botany at Columbia University and developed a wide range of collaborative and institutional ties in both American and international scientific communities.

Robbins was born 22 February 1890 in North Platte, Nebraska and grew up in Muncy and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He received his A.B. (1910) at Lehigh University and Ph.D. (1915) in plant physiology at the Department of Agriculture of Cornell University. In that year he married Christine Chapman, with whom he co-authored papers on David Hosack and John Torrey. In 1916 he was appointed Professor of Botany at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute at Auburn where he began research into Bryophyllum, an important focus of his research for years to come. After serving briefly in World War I as a medical bacteriologist at the Yale University Laboratory School, he served as Professor of Botany and Chairman of the Department of Botany of the University of Missouri (1919-1937). During his eighteen years here, he also served as Dean of the Graduate School (1930-1937) and as Acting President (1933-1934).

The NYBG appointed Robbins Director-in-Chief in 1937; he assumed duties in March, 1938. He was the first director who specialized in plant physiology and microbiology rather than taxonomy. His primary research interests were the tissue culture of higher plants, including Hedera helix; the nutritional requirements of filamentous fungi; and vitamin synthesis, normal and abnormal growth, and the physiology of aging in plants. During World War II he began an experimental program to extract antibiotic substances from basidiomycetes, the fleshy fungi. The program was supported by a grant from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to screen chemical extractions for antiviral application. Dr. Igor N. Asheshov assisted him in this effort.

As Director Robbins reversed the deterioration of the NYBG infrastructure, instituted sound budgetary practices, and improved employee benefits and conditions of work. Renovation and construction programs increased through his effective procurement of private funding. He initiated the establishment of a permanent research laboratory in 1956 making the NYBG unique among botanical institutions in the scope of its research and accomplishments. In 1947 The New Yorker published a profile of Robbins entitled "Square Deal among the Fungi" that characterized him as "a man in whom the qualities of an efficient administrator, a zealous promoter, and a physiological mycologist, or student of the behavior of fungi, are rather unexpectedly joined."

In 1947 Robbins traveled to Japan as one of six scientists of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate and make recommendations on rebuilding Japan's educational, research, and scientific institutions in the aftermath of World War II. Afterwards, he was involved in negotiations to bring the Lloyd Library of Cincinnati to the NYBG while his experiments on the regeneration of Bryophyllum, the vitamin needs of Euglena gracilis, and the inhibition of bacterial viruses continued. In 1955 Robbins was a National Academy of Sciences delegate to the Seventh Pakistan Science Conference. The following year he toured Europe and the British Isles to collect data on plant growth and to deliver a paper at the Colloque International in Paris. During these years he oversaw a team of scientists engaged in research on genetics (Barksdale, Dodge, and Stout), exploration of the Guyana Highland (Bassett Maguire), and publication of the New Britton & Brown Illustrated Flora (Henry Gleason). He assisted Robert Gordon Wasson in his ethnomycological studies of the Mazatecs of Oaxaca and was involved in the recruitment of Oswald Tippo to succeed him as director. Tippo declined, and William Steere became the director, serving from 1958 to 1972.

Though William Robbins retired from the NYBG for reasons of health, he continued his research at Rockefeller University and maintained associations with many scientific societies. Among his many appointments and distinctions he served as: Vice-president, 3rd International Microbiological Conference (1939); President, Torrey Botanical Club (1943-44); President, Botanical Society of America (1943); Vice-president, American Association for the Advancement of Science (1943); board of directors member, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (1944-73); Treasurer, National Academy of Sciences (1948-60) Vice-president, Mycology and Bacteriology, International Botanical Congress VII (1950); President, American Philosophical Society (1956-59); board of trustees member, Rockefeller University (1956-65); President, Fairchild Tropical Garden (1962-69); and Chairman, Conference on Tropical Botany, Fairchild Tropical Garden (1960). He held honorary Doctor of Science degrees from Lehigh University (1937) and Fordham University (1945). William Robbins died 5 October 1978.