Professor Robert Steele obtained his initial surgical and academic training in Edinburgh, Hong Kong and Aberdeen before appointments as Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Nottingham in 1990 and Professor of Surgical Oncology at the University of Dundee in 1996 and as Professor of Surgery and Head of Academic Surgery in 2003.
His main interests are the treatment of and screening of colorectal cancer.He is at present the Clinical Director of the Scottish Colorectal Cancer Screening Programme, and has published extensively in this area. He is a past member of Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Edinburgh editor of The Surgeon. He is co-founder and co-director of the Scottish Cancer Prevention Network, Chair of the Health Services Research Committee of the Scottish Governments Chief Scientists Office, and is currently President of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland.