FREDERICK C. ROBBINS

Frederick Chapman Robbins (b. 1916, Auburn, Alabama) is University Professor Emeritus at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics of Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and Dean Emeritus of CWRU School of Medicine. Together with John F. Enders and Thomas Weller, he received the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for “their development of techniques for the growth of poliovirus in cultures of non-nervous tissue.” Their work paved the way to the development of the vaccines against poliomyelitis by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin and eventually to the almost total eradication of polio from the entire world. He received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1940. He served from 1942 until 1946 in the U.S. Army. He spent his residency at the Boston Children's Hospital, where the polio work was done. He became Professor of Pediatrics at WRU School of Medicine and Director of the Department of Pediatric and Contagious Diseases at Cleveland City Hospital in 1952, then Dean of the School of Medicine at CWRU in 1966. Dr. Robbins served as President of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences from 1980–1985. He is a Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and many other learned societies. He has received numerous awards and honorary degrees and he has held positions in many committees especially on viral and other infectious diseases world-wide. Our conversation took place in his office at CWRU on October 4, 2000.^*…