This page was created in memory of Julian as a way for the CBW community to collectively say goodbye and to pay tribute to him. You are invited to view the page, and to add and share your own memories. Please leave tributes below, and upload photos under the 'gallery' tab.We were deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Julian Perry Robinson.
Julian is possibly best described as the grandfather of non-governmental research into the control of biological and chemical warfare (CBW).
A British citizen, he was born in Jerusalem, mandated territory of Palestine, in 1941. He graduated from Oxford University with an honors degree in chemistry in 1964, his dissertation being on certain aspects of chemical warfare during World War II.
Julian was the focal point of the work at SIPRI in the late 1960s and early 1970s on CBW which included the excellent six-volume series of books on the subject that are still required reading for anyone entering the field. During this period, he was also responsible for ground-breaking reports on CBW issues published by the UN Secretary-General and the World Health Organization. All of these provided essential inputs into the negotiation of the Biological Weapons Convention which was opened for signature in 1972.
From SIPRI, Julian moved to the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex, which became the base from which he carried out the rest of his life's work. He formed the Harvard Sussex Program (HSP) with his long-time collaborator Matthew Meselson from Harvard University. HSP remains the repository of Julian's substantial archive -- perhaps the best research resource on these issues outside of any government.
Julian was a key coordinator of Pugwash activities in the CBW area. He was a co-convenor of the Pugwash Study Group on Implementation of the Chemical and Biological Weapons Conventions. The study group proved to be an extremely useful method of bridging differences in approaches to the multi-faceted problems of CBW control by different governments. The negotiations of the Chemical Weapons Convention benefited hugely from these Pugwash activities as did negotiations to strengthen the BWC which were brought to a halt in 2001.
Julian never really retired, continuing work in recent years on the use of chemical weapons in Syria and on novichoks following the Salisbury poisonings.
There are never adequate words to describe the loss of someone of his calibre. He will be sadly missed by so many of us.
Brian Balmer, Richard Guthrie, Filippa Lentzos & Caitriona McLeish
Further tributes to Julian were published by SIPRI on 24 April, John Hart and CNS on 24 April, Nicholas Sims in
The Bulletin on 30 April, Richard Guthrie in
The Guardian on 8 May, Jean-Pascal Zanders in
The Trench on 13 May,
The Times on 19 May, Caitriona McLeish in
Nature on 21 May, and Daniel Feakes in
Arms Control Today on 1 June.
