Optical Researcher David Robinson Dies

"David A. Robinson, a founding member of Johns Hopkins University's Department of Biomedical Engineering and distinguished service professor emeritus of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, and neuroscience, died on Oct. 18. He was 92," according to a memoriam from Johns Hopkins University.

David A. Robinson, a founding member of the Johns
Hopkins University Department of Biomedical Engineering

 

"Robinson, who retired in 1993, studied electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins and received his master's and PhD degrees in 1956 and 1959, respectively. He joined the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine faculty as an instructor in 1961 and was named an assistant professor of biomedical engineering in 1966. In 1965, Robinson published a groundbreaking paper in the Journal of Physiology that is still considered to be the most comprehensive and thorough investigation of the mechanics of eye movements. 
 Robinson, named a full professor in the Department of Ophthalmology in 1975, developed a magnetic field search coil technique that remains today as the standard for recording eye movements in both basic and clinical eye movement laboratories. 
He was the first researcher to simultaneously record eye movements and activity of ocular motor neurons from fully alert behaving primates. The results produced the mathematical relationship known as the pulse-step of innervation."