IU alum new U.S. Navy Surgeon General

Rear Adm. Adam Robinson, Jr.’s medical career that began with an undergraduate degree from IU will reach a high point Monday when he is promoted to the position of Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy.\n“It is my absolute honor and privilege to have been selected to lead such a wonderful team of men and women, and that is the team that makes up Navy medicine,” Robinson said.\nRobinson received his B.A. in political science from IU in 1972. In his course of studies he fulfilled his pre-medical school requirements and enrolled in IU’s Medical Science Program upon graduation. \nAs Surgeon General of the Navy and Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, Robinson said he will help develop the Navy’s military policies, working with the Chief of Naval Operations to make decisions about military medicine.\nRobinson was nominated by President Bush to be the thirty-sixth Surgeon General of the Navy and will be sworn in next week. Previously, Robinson had been the commander of the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. He called the Naval Medical Center the best in the country, but said he still owes much of what he has accomplished to his time in Bloomington.\nDuring his undergraduate career, Robinson caught the attention of Dr. Eugene Weinberg , a professor of microbiology, who recommended he enroll in the newly-formed Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program as a way to help pay for his medical school. The military’s medicine programs tend to be progressive and efficient, Weinberg said.\n“The military, if it is not distracted by wars, usually knows what it’s doing,” Weinberg said. \nHaving served in the Army himself during World War II, Weinberg knew what the military could offer in terms of medical resources, and thought Robinson would benefit. Looking back, Robinson said he agreed with Weinberg, whom he considers a mentor.\n“Very few organizations can do the scale and the scope, the breadth and the depth of the types of work that we can do on the military side,” Robinson said of the Navy’s medical program.\nWeinberg said Robinson initially stuck out to him because of his ambition. \n“In any field, you can see some people who are very anxious to get their feet wet and get going,” Weinberg said. \nRobinson completed his first two years of medical school in Bloomington before spending his last two at the IU School of Medicine in Indianapolis. He said IU has played an immeasurable role in the person he has become. \n“It was the place that really awakened the crevices and the back corners of my mind. It was the launching pad for a lot of what I’ve done in life,” Robinson said. “I’ve had a wonderful career, and I’ve been very fortunate, and very blessed to have had the experiences and the opportunities I’ve had, and I attribute a lot of that to my beginnings at IU.”