Gene Ezia Robinson (born January 9, 1955) is an American entomologist, Director of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology and National Academy of Sciences member.
[3] On February 10, 2009, his research was famously featured in an episode of The Colbert Report whose eponymous host referred to the honey Dr. Robinson sent him as "pharmaceutical-grade hive jive".
Authoring or co-authoring over 250 publications, Robinson has made a wide range of fundamental advances in understanding the endocrine, neural, and genetic regulation of behavior at the individual and colony levels in honey bees.
University Scholar and member of the Center of Advanced Study at the University of Illinois; Burroughs Wellcome Innovation Award in Functional Genomics; G. William Arends Professor of Integrative Biology; Certificate of Distinction from the International Congress of Entomology; Founders Memorial Award from the Entomological Society of America; Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship; Guggenheim Fellowship; NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2009);[9] Fellow, Animal Behavior Society; Fellow, Entomological Society of America; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004);[10] Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (2005),[11] and of the National Academy of Medicine (2018).
In 2015, Robinson received an honorary doctoral degree from Hebrew University in Jerusalem for "his scientific leadership and groundbreaking contribution to the molecular basis of social behavior".