Joan Robb

Joan Robb
Born	1921
Died	19 October 2017, age 95 Auckland
Alma mater	Massey Agricultural College
Scientific career
Fields	herpetology
Institutions	Auckland University
Author abbrev. (zoology)	Robb

Joan Robb (c. 1921 – 19 October 2017) was a New Zealand herpetologist working in the Zoology Department at the University of Auckland as an associate professor. After retirement, she was a wildlife tour guide in New Zealand and the Indian subcontinent, Africa and Australia.

Academic career

Robb grew up in Gisborne, and was educated at home through the Correspondence School. After a Diploma in Agriculture from Massey Agricultural College, she studied at the University of Auckland, graduating with an MSc in zoology in 1956. Robb then worked in the Department of Zoology at the University of Auckland, becoming an associate professor in 1967. She taught vertebrate form and function. She retired in 1978, after which she became a tour guide for wildlife tours to Malaysia, Nepal, China, Australia, and Africa.

Robb held positions on the Fauna Protection Advisory Council (an advisory group to the Department of Internal Affairs, who were then responsible for conservation) and the Council of the Auckland Museum.

Robb's research focused on herpetology, particularly New Zealand lizards, and she named five new taxa of skink and gecko. Her 1980 book describing New Zealand amphibians and reptiles was considered to be "academic in quality, but popular in tone".

In 2017, Robb was named as one of the Royal Society Te Apārangi's 150 women in 150 words.

Robb died in Auckland on 19 October 2017.

Taxa named by Robb

• Gold-striped gecko
• Macgregor's skink
• Oligosoma pachysomaticum
• Robust skink
• Stephen's Island gecko