David Z. Robinson was born in Westmount, Quebec in 1927. He attended Harvard University, receiving an AB magna cum laude in Chemistry and Physics in 1946, an A.M. in Chemistry in 1947, and Ph.D. in Chemical Physics in 1950.

In 1949, he joined the company now called Baird, Inc. as a research physicist and was appointed Assistant Director of Research in 1951. While at Baird, he was involved both in developing commercial optical and electronic instruments, and in research on infrared detection devices for the Defense Department.

In early 1961, he joined the White House as a staff scientist in the Office of the President’s Science Adviser. In that office, he was involved with many communications issues, including communications satellite policy, command and control, and the hot line between U.S. and the Soviet Union. He also dealt with basic science policy and budgets.

In 1967, he became Vice President for Academic Affair of New York University, which at that time had two undergraduate campuses, 16 schools and 35,000 full and part-time students.

In 1970, Dr. Robinson was appointed Vice President of Carnegie Corporation of New York, an educational foundation. He became Executive Vice President and Treasurer in 1986. In addition to his administrative duties he has worked closely with Carnegie programs in higher education, public broadcasting, college retirement, avoiding nuclear war, and science education.

In February of 1988, Carnegie Corporation established the Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, and he became Executive Director. The Commission is assessing the mechanisms by which the federal government and the states incorporate scientific and technological knowledge in decision making, and recommending changes to make them more effective. He was continued his program activities at Carnegie Corporation where he serves as senior counselor to the President.

Dr. Robinson has been an advisor to the President’s Science Advisory Committee, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Science Foundation. He has been a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, Governor Cuomo’s Advisory Committee on Education, and the Education and the Science and Law Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York. He has also been a member of the Boards of the City University of New York the Dalton School, Amideast, the South Africa Education Program, and the Investors Responsibility Research Corporation. He is currently a trustee of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Prep for Prep, the Institute for School of the Future, the Citizen’s Union Foundation, and the Santa Fe Institute.

He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Harvard of New York, and the Century Association.