Bob Edkins graduated from Durham University in 2009 with a MChem degree. He stayed in Durham to complete a PhD in early 2013 under the supervision of Prof. Andrew Beeby on the excited state properties of iridium complexes.

He moved to Julius-Maximilians Universität Würzburg, Germany, in February 2013 for a PDRA position with Prof. Todd Marder, where he studied the optical properties of rhodacyclopentadiene complexes. Soon after, he was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship that allowed him to remain in Würzburg, but switched focus onto the optical properties of three-coordinate boron compounds.

In 2015 he moved to the University of Oxford where he held a Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship, hosted in the laboratory of Prof. Stephen Faulkner. Here, he began his independent research on the synthesis of phthalocyanine phtosensitizers for phototherapy and on imaging agents for super-resolution microscopy.

He moved to the University of Strathclyde to take up a Chancellor's Fellowship/Lecturer position in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which he began in September 2018. Here, he is continuing his research into the optical properties of a variety of novel molecules (see Research Interests).

Bob is currently the secretary of the RSC Photophysics and Photochemistry Group.