Robbins, Frederick C(hapman) (1916- )

US virologist and paediatrician who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1954 for the cultivation of the polio virus in the laboratory. At Children's Hospital, Boston, in 1946-50, he joined John F Enders and Thomas Weller in devising tissue culture techniques for cultivating the poliomyelitis virus, thus enabling the development of a polio vaccine. He shared the prize with his two colleagues.

He was born in Auburn, Alabama. After completing his medical studies, he served in the army as an epidemiological investigator in the period 1942-46. He was at Harvard Medical School in 1950-52, and a professor of paediatrics at Case Western Reserve in 1952-80. After his retirement, he was president of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences in 1980-85.