She is deputy-director of science implementation and UOW node lead of the Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future program, a special research initiative on excellence in antarctic science from the Australian Research Council, awarded $36 million over a seven year period (2021-2028).[1][2][3] She is also the dean of researcher development and integrity (2022-2023) at the University of Wollongong.[4]
In 1986 she completed a Graduate Certificate in Science Education at King's College London[7] and taught science at Hampstead School, London for a year.[citation needed] She then returned to UCL in 1987 to start a PhD with Professor George Stewart, "Nitrogen metabolism in carrot cell cultures" which she completed in 1990.[7]
Robinson established the first long-term monitoring of Antarctic vegetation in 2000. Her findings since then have shown that change is occurring in these plant communities at an unprecedented rate, including species shifts in East Antarctic terrestrial communities and declining plant health due to climate change. The research is providing some of the first evidence that climate change and ozone depletion are affecting East Antarctic terrestrial communities.[14]
Robinson has pioneered the use of isotope analysis and other chemical makers for understanding how Antarctic mosses function and how climate change is affecting Antarctic plants.[14][15] Through her research using of radiocarbon bomb spike she has been able to date Antarctic mosses – providing long-term growth records that demonstrate these are “old growth mosses”.[14]
Robinson is a member of the United Nations Environment Programme Environmental Effects Assessment Panel,[18] served on the Australian Research Council College of Experts (2013-2017),[7][19] and is an Editor for the journal Global Change Biology and Conservation Physiology.[20] She has written several articles for the public,[21] exhibited Antarctic photography, produced award-winning YouTube video to promote science and presented a TEDx talk.[22][23] She has visited the Antarctic continent and islands more than 12 times and her research has been featured in the UOW 40 years of Research, UOW Women of Impact, and ABC and BBC Science sites.[7][24][25][26][27][28][29] In 2012 she was an invited speaker at the Australian Academy of Science, Mawson Symposium at the Shine Dome in Canberra.[30]
Robinson was the Executive Director of the UOW Global Challenges Program from 2020-2022, and Leader of the Program's Sustaining Coastal and Marine Zones Challenge from 2018-2020 at the University of Wollongong.[7][31]
Awards and honours
Robinson has been awarded several prizes over her career. Most recently, she was awarded the UOW Vice Chancellor's Researcher of the Year award for 2019 and in 2018 she was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Outstanding Achievement in Research Partnership and Impact award. At the start of her research career the Linnean Society of London awarded her the Irene Manton Prize, for the Best UK PhD in Botany, 1991.[32]
She has also been awarded prizes for teaching. The Australian Society of Plant Scientists' awarded Robinson their Teaching Award in 2002.[33] She has also been awarded prizes for her educational videos, including the Chlorotube 1st prize Competition 3 (YouTube In the Heat of the Night) 2010,[22] 2nd prize Competition 1 (YouTube The Science of Cool) 2009.[23]
In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Eureka Prize in the Leadership in Innovation and Science category.[34]
Lea, Peter J.; Robinson, Sharon A.; Stewart, George R. (1990). "The enzymology and metabolism of glutamine, glutamate, and asparagine". The Biochemistry of Plants. 16: 121–159.
Ballaré, C. L.; Caldwell, M. M.; Flint, S. D.; Robinson, S. A.; Bornman, J. F. (2011). "Effects of solar ultraviolet radiation on terrestrial ecosystems. Patterns, mechanisms, and interactions with climate change". Photochemical & Photobiological Sciences. 10 (2): 226–241. doi:10.1039/c0pp90035d. hdl:11336/73927. PMID21253661.