Gilbert de B. Robinson was born in Toronto, and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1927. He received his Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1931. He has been a member of the staff on the Department of Mathematics at the University of Toronto from 1931 to the present. He was Visiting Professor at Michigan State University in 1953-54. From 1940 to 1945 Professor Robinson served with the National Research Council in Ottawa; he was honoured with the M.B.E in 1946.

Professor Robinson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and was President of Section II in 1959-60, 1961-62. From 1933 to 1957, he was President of the Canadian Mathematical Congress. He has taken an active part in the founding and development of the Canadian Journal of Mathematics.