For the New South Wales parliamentarian see Robert James Webster For the two-time Olympic gold medalist in diving, see Bob Webster

Robert G. (Rob) Webster (born May 7, 1932), in Balclutha New Zealand, leading avian influenza expert, is the virologist who in 1957 was the first to announce a link between human flu and bird flu . He correctly posited that pandemic strains of flu arise from genes in flu virus strains in nonhumans; for example, via a reassortment of genetic segments (antigenic shift) between viruses in humans and nonhumans (especially birds) rather than by mutations (antigenic drift) in annual human flu strains.