Rich Robinson wins a bridge-building contest and ultimately builds bridges for future scientists.

Secret: Photographer

Rich Robinson tries to capture his subjects' souls in his photography.

30 Second Science with Rich Robinson

We give Rich Robinson 30 seconds to describe his science and he learns how short 30 seconds is.

10 Questions for Rich Robinson

We ask Rich Robinson 10 questions and learn why he likes Einstein so much.

The art behind the scientist

We don’t usually highlight your comments in our blog posts, but we definitely wanted to call your attention to this one from Sally Grubb of Ithaca, New York:

“I saw this website and Rich’s page and was bowled away by his photography. As the co-ordinator of exhibits at the Tompkins County Public Library in Ithaca where Rich lives and works at Cornell University, I wanted to exhibit Rich’s photographs. Because of your website and Rich’s photographs, TCPL has started a new series ‘The Art Behind the Scientist.’ The series will include the work of scientists who are also artists. They will exhibit their work and present a talk or workshop about it. So far, we have exhibited the sculpture of Professor Frank Moon, and will feature the photography of Rich Robinson this month and throughout the month of June. His photographs will appear between the book stacks. He will give a talk about his art and his science on Saturday May 22nd at 3 pm. Future exhibits include the kinetic sculpture of physics Professor Werner Sun. Thank you Richie for being the catalyst for what is proving to be a wonderful series of exhibits. Thank you NOVA for ‘The Secret Life of Scientists’! Check out our website for more information at Tompkins County Public Library.”

Clearly, Rich’s photography is no longer a secret. If you’re in the Ithaca area or nearby, we encourage you to check out his very cool exhibit. And many thanks to Sally Grubb for making it happen and for her kind words, too.

Showing up

When Rich Robinson came to our studio, one thing was abundantly clear—the man was wearing an amazing purple shirt. We all loved it so much that we’re getting a bunch of them for our team in the “Science on the Web” bowling league (it can only help—at least we’ll look good…).

As we spent more time with Rich, some much deeper truths did emerge:

For Rich, science is something everyone can do—it isn’t limited to natural born geniuses. And he attributes much of his own success to his willingness—since he was a young boy—to always “work a little bit harder.”

Rich talked a lot about the moment when his photographic subjects “show up” and reveal some truth about themselves. We’ve been behind the camera for dozens of interviews, and there’s never any doubt when someone is sharing something real or just going through the motions. On the set, it felt like Rich was “showing up” big time. We hope that comes across in the videos.

After you watch Rich’s videos, be sure to check out his links to learn more about his science and some of his favorite photographers, too.

Ask Rich your questions

Q: I think your photos are great. I particularly like the one of you and your dad. If you could make a living as a photographer, would you stop being a scientist?

Rich Robinson (RR): Photo only? Owen, thats a tough one. I love photography but I rarely take it home with me at night; when I take pictures I’m completely involved during the “shoot” but after its over that evaporates. Science, however, keeps my attention all day and all night, in the shower, when I walk to work, when I eat oatmeal and oranges in the morning…maybe if I learned how to pre-plan shoots and sets and scenarios for my pictures it would take over.

Q: What kind of camera do you use, and have you gone through more than one? Do you prefer taking pictures of relatives and friends, or taking them of strangers? Who is your favorite photographer?

RR: I use a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II. It's a great camera. It takes 120 film so the negatives are really big (read: it captures a lot of information/detail so you can blow up pictures to large sizes). It’s the third “medium format” camera I’ve used. My friend first loaned me a Pentax 6×7, then I borrowed a 6×6 camera, then I jumped in and bought this Mamiya. You have to look through the top of the camera to see the subject so it hangs down in front of you. The advantage, I’ve found, is that people expect you to look through a viewfinder with the camera on your face and when that happens they react by striking a pose, but with my camera, since I look down instead of at them, they give me a more natural pose because they aren’t expecting it as much. I really am only good at taking pictures of friends. The person really has to be comfortable with me in order to get a good picture, otherwise it doesn’t really work. The pictures come out like snapshots instead of portraits.

Q: I saw that your undergrad major was Mechanical Engineering…what first turned you on to nanomaterials?

RR: I sat in on this class called solid state physics and it blew my mind. I learned about atoms and crystal lattices and vibrations and it really opened my eyes to fundamental science.

Q: I really enjoyed the videos! Do you think that in the science world, nanotechnology will become as “big” as, say, space science in the 50s?

RR: I certainly hope so! There is so much interesting work that’s come out of the science of nanoparticles I’m sure theres a great period of nanotechnology to follow.

Q: Other than the one of you and your Dad, do you have other favorite photos (of the ones you have taken)?

RR: It”s hard to compete with the one of my dad, but I think they showed a good sampling of my favorites. I really like to ones of my friend Jay; he really shows up in pictures so its easy to take pictures of him.

Q: What kind of properties change at the nano level?

RR: Many different properties of materials change at the nanoscale, thats the exciting part! The optical properties change: its color gets shifted to the blue as the particle gets smaller. Thermal properties change too: the wavelength of a heat vibration can be around 100 nm so when your particle is smaller than this the heat wave will bounce off the walls and decrease (usually) the thermal conductivity, so it acts more like an insulator than a metal. Other things like the magnetic properties change as well. Its a whole new playing field.

Q: I teach Living Environment at an all-boys, public high school in the Bronx. I showed your video clips to my scholars. They were suprised to see that a scientist would have an interest and life outside of the lab. They had a few questions for you below.

Q: What was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do in the lab?

RR: Learn chemistry on the fly. Luckily, I was surrounded by a bunch of people smarter than me so I could ask them a lot of questions.

Q: What are some new developments in nanotechnology?

RR: Graphene is definitely the hottest new material. It is a single sheet of carbon atoms, 1 atomic layer thick. It has some amazing properties. Google it!

Q: Would you choose another life besides science?

RR: Science is so great. I get paid to come up with questions and then try to answer them. It seems like such a racket. I basically can decide I want to learn about something (why is the sky blue, how do plants make energy from light, how do nano-magnets work) and they pay me to research it. Talk about being in charge!

Q: What pushed you to work harder than others?

RR: I think I have always been very interested in knowing the “truth” about something. Every time I learned something I wanted to know where it came from, how it evolved, who invented it, and how to reconstruct it from scratch, like if I were lost on a desert island I should be able to rewrite a physics text book, or at least a chapter.

Q: How did you feel about being called a professor at a young age?

RR: I thought it was funny. the other kids weren’t really trying to complement me, so it wasn’t like they were calling me cool. But I guess they called it right.

Q: When did you become a real professor?

RR: I just started my professorship a year ago. I’ve been here at Cornell for a year now and its gone by so quickly.

Q: How strong does a microscope have to be to view a nanobot?

RR: A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, so you have to magnify it a great deal! Most of our pictures are magnified around 300,000 times. The other thing is since the nanoparticles are so small we can’t use ordinary light waves to see them because the light waves are actually too big. We have to shoot electrons at them, which make much smaller waves than light, and that’s how we “see” these nanoparticles.

Q: What degrees do you have?

RR: I have a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, and a PhD. In Applied Physics

Q: How long have you been a nanoscientist?

RR: Not too long now, I guess 10 years officially. As Malcolm Gladwell (a writer) notes that success in any field takes about 10,000 hours of work. That’s 20 hours a week for 10 years. I’m certainly near this mark so hopefully the success will follow.

Q: Do you still have the first picture that you ever took?

RR: My parents bought me a 35 mm camera in 7th grade. And I remember thinking how interesting black and white prints were. I’ll have to look for those.

Q: Have you made any new discoveries?

RR: Just recently we have found a way to make nanosheets of metal oxides. Very thin sheets that look like a sheet of paper (but only 20 nanometers thick! A nanometer is a billionth of a meter)