Gene E. Robinson obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1986 and joined the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989. He holds a University Swanlund Chair and Center for Advanced Study Professorship, is director (since 2011) of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) and director (since 1990) of the Bee Research Facility, and is a former director of the campus Neuroscience Program (2001-2011).