Iain Gordon grew up in Edinburgh. He studied mathematics across the UK, held positions in Scotland, Germany, Belgium and the USA before coming to Edinburgh in 2006 as the Professor of Mathematics. His research is in representation theory, an area of mathematics that spans algebra and geometry and has uses in many of the physical and information sciences, since it is a key part of the mathematical language of symmetry.

He held an EPSRC Leadership Fellowship from 2007 to 2012, and became Head of School of Mathematics in 2014. This summer he stepped down from the role as Head of School and became the Head of the College of Science and Engineering in August.