Bob Reuben received a BSc in Metallurgy from the University of Strathclyde in 1974 after which he spent 3 years as a Scientific Officer at UKAEA, Dounreay working on industrial research into the chemical and metallurgical performance of fast reactor fuel elements. He then was employed as a Research Assistant at the Open University's Oxford Research Unit, which led to his PhD on Hydrogen Permeation through Metals in 1980. He then carried out postdoctoral work at the University of Strathclyde on structure-property relationships in some novel steels for automotive and structural use. From 1983 to 1985, he was employed as a lecturer at Robert Gordon's Institute of Technology (now RGU) in the School of Mechanical and Offshore Engineering before joining Heriot-Watt University as a lecturer in the Department of Offshore Engineering in 1985. In 1990, he moved to the Department of Mechanical Engineering and became Professor of Materials Engineering in 1995. His research interests generally fall into the area of experimental mechanics, including: structure-property relationships for development of engineering performance of materials and also for use as diagnostic indicators in medicine (tissue quality); development of new, quantitative approaches to analysis of stress waves in solids for diagnostic engineering; and applications of mechanics to miniature mechanical systems to achieve real engineering solutions in millimetre-sized envelopes. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh by virtue of his membership of the Edinburgh Research Partnership (EP) Joint Research Institute of Integrated Systems (JRI IIS).