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watch math classes, biology classes. I remember in fact, he considers being named UA president ‘I’ve always had a
hanging around, soaking it all up, running the proudest moment of his very accomplished
around with the students, playing pickup career. holistic desire to
basketball and pingpong. It probably set the seed “I’ve always had a holistic desire to learn, and
for my comfort being on a university campus.” major universities are one of the most important learn, and major
He also remembers following around campus assets we have as a country and world,” he says.
custodians, helping to clean buildings and pick “They should be a safe harbor, where there is universities are
up trash. That led to his first job as a teenager — an exchange of intellectual ideas and concepts.
a $1.10-an-hour gig on the school’s maintenance We’re in the knowledge discovery and knowledge one of the most
crew. transfer business — discovering new knowledge,
Robbins’ fascination with academics grew converting that into commercializable products important assets
even stronger in high school, as he juggled his or ideas, and transferring knowledge to students
studies with his love of sports. His competitive to prepare them for the future. I like to say it’s not we have as a
nature on the football and baseball fields, as well just about four years for our students; it’s about
as on the basketball court, extended into his 40 to 60 more years.” country and world.’
schoolwork. That sort of future-focused thinking comes
“I was really into studying and learning naturally for Robbins, who remembers being
things, but I also looked at it as a challenge: that inspired by his 12th-grade civics teacher, Mrs.
the teachers couldn’t ask me anything I couldn’t Turner — an African-American teaching in
answer on a test,” he says. a school that had been desegregated a mere
By the time Robbins entered high school, he five years earlier. Mrs. Turner emphasized the
knew he wanted to go to medical school, which importance of understanding not only where the
made academics even more important. It was a country had been, but also where it was going.
goal inspired, in part, by the fact that one of his That idea stuck with Robbins, who, as an avid
classmates growing up was the son of the only sports fan, references the concept today via a
physician in their small town of Ellisville. Wayne Gretzky quote: “Skate to where the puck is
“For me, in this little-bitty high school in going, not where it has been.”
a very poor part of Mississippi, I knew it was Where Robbins sees the puck going is the
important to always make A’s and do the best “fourth industrial revolution,” in which he
I could,” Robbins says. “I knew I had to study envisions the UA being a major player.
and continue to excel to get out of there and be
competitive.” The UA and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
While many of his friends went to work on
farms or in factories, Robbins headed to Millsaps Robbins’ personal reading list is filled
College, a small liberal arts school in Jackson, with books on leadership, politics, history
Mississippi, where he earned a bachelor’s degree and technology. One of the latest to capture
in chemistry. his attention is World Economic Forum
Although Robbins had hoped to play football founder Klaus Schwab’s “The Fourth Industrial
in college, a knee injury derailed that plan. For Revolution,” which focuses on a new era —
a time, he thought about becoming a pro sports beyond the digital age — that is characterized
team physician, but with those jobs few and far by technologies that fuse the physical, digital
between he switched his attention to cardiac and biological worlds. (Think driverless cars or
surgery, earning his medical degree from the implantable medical monitoring devices, for
University of Mississippi in 1983. example.)
As an internationally recognized cardiac “I’m a big fan of this concept, and I don’t know
surgeon, Robbins authored more than 300 peer- that any university has taken that as their road
reviewed research articles. His clinical work map for how we prepare our students for this
focused on acquired cardiac diseases, especially rapidly changing world,” Robbins says.
the surgical treatment of congestive heart failure The UA, with its work on everything from
and cardiothoracic transplantation. autonomous vehicles and drones to artificial
Robbins’ return to academia after his stint at intelligence and machine learning to implantable
Texas Medical Center is a welcome one for him; medical devices and solar energy, is uniquely

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