A Professor Emeritus of Medical Cell Biology at Liverpool University,[1] he is known for his pioneering research in the neurology, biochemistry and physiology of skeletal muscle.

[5] The associated changes in myosin isoforms overturned the accepted notion that a terminally differentiated tissue was incapable of re-expressing its genome.

Salmons later attended the University College London on a Nuffield Foundation bursary, where he graduated with a master's degree in physiology.

[6] Salmons gave the 1989 Erasmus Wilson Demonstration at the Royal College of Surgeons of England,[7] and has also served as Director of the British Heart Foundation Skeletal Muscle Assist Research Group.

He helped found the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society and is an honorary member of the board of directors for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektrostimulation und Elektrotherapie.