A graduate of the University of Glasgow (BSc, 1963; PhD, 1967) and the University of Aberdeen (DSc, 1982), he gained industrial training as an undergraduate vacation apprentice for a firm of electrical contractors at ICI Nobel Division, and with Cossor Radar and Electronics, Harlow.
He is the author of the entry on Electroforming for the Encyclopedia of Production Engineering (2013), and a volume editor for Comprehensive Materials Processing (2014).
He held a Royal Society/SERC (now EPSRC) Industrial Fellowship between 1987 and 1989, and has been the director of three spin-off companies.
More recently he served as chairman for Aberdeen Dyce Academy College council, and president for Edinburgh Colinton Literary Society (including its centenary year).
He gives lectures on science to the community, including the National Trust for Scotland, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.