Donald Robertson is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Human Sciences, Faculty of Science, at the University of Western Australia. He earned his BSc from the University of Western Australia and PhD from McGill University in 1975 on mechanisms of sharp tuning in the mammalian cochlea. His career began with an undergraduate honours degree in Physiology under Brian Johnstone at UWA, followed by research on the efferent control system in hearing with John Desmedt at the Brain Research Institute of the University of Brussels, and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship there studying cognitive components of evoked cerebral potentials. Returning to Western Australia as a Queen Elizabeth II Fellow, he held a lecturing position in physiology at UWA, interrupted by study leaves in Melbourne with Dexter Irvine, Madison, Wisconsin with Donata Oertel, and Auckland with Gary Housley. He retired from full-time teaching and research in 2012, appointed Senior Honorary Research Fellow, and since 2019 assists the lab with experiment design, marks theses, attends scientific meetings, and reviews grants and manuscripts for journals.

Robertson's research specializations include physiology, neurophysiology, sensory physiology, hearing and deafness, and tinnitus. For over 30 years, he advanced mammalian hearing neurophysiology through pioneering work such as the first recordings from guinea pig spiral ganglion neurons inside the intact living cochlea, demonstration of sharp frequency selectivity vulnerability in primary auditory afferent neurons, microelectrode recording and single-cell labeling of afferent and efferent neurons showing precise brain-to-inner-ear feedback, first physiological and pharmacological characterization of olivocochlear efferent neurons in brain slices, demonstration of frequency map plasticity in partially deafened adult animals' brains, characterization of auditory brainstem octopus cells, development of an in vitro whole cochlear slice preparation, demonstration of auditory midbrain effects on inner ear responses to sound, physiological action of olivocochlear collaterals in the auditory brainstem, and evidence in a tinnitus animal model that central hyperactivity depends on cochlear spontaneous neural drive. Key publications include 'Changes in prefrontal cortex–thalamic circuitry after acoustic trauma' (2021), 'Changes in auditory thalamus neural firing patterns after acoustic trauma in rats' (2019), 'Targets of olivocochlear collaterals in cochlear nucleus of rat and guinea pig' (2019), and 'Persistent hair cell malfunction contributes to hidden hearing loss' (2018). He served as AuPS Invited Lecturer at the 2007 Scientific Meeting and received grants from NHMRC, ARC, Neurotrauma Research Program, Action on Hearing Loss, Medical Health and Infrastructure Fund, and Ramaciotti Foundation.

Professional Email: Don.Robertson@uwa.edu.au