Robert Mair is the Sir Kirby Laing Professor of Civil Engineering and Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He was Master of Jesus College (2001–2011) and Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2008–2011). Before he was appointed to a Professorship at Cambridge in 1998, he worked in industry for 27 years, in 1983 founding the Geotechnical Consulting Group, an international consulting company based in London.

His research group specialises in the geotechnics of tunnelling and underground construction. He is closely involved with Crossrail, Europe’s largest civil engineering project, and is a member of its Engineering Expert Panel. He leads the Cambridge Centre for Smart Infrastructure and Construction, which uses the latest sensor technologies to monitor the behaviour of civil engineering infrastructure.

Robert chaired the Royal Society–Royal Academy of Engineering report on Shale Gas for the UK government, published in 2012. He is Chairman of the Science Advisory Council of the Department of Transport and a Vice-President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.