Rob has published over 140 peer-review articles and is author or co-author of several books. Recently collaborations within Rob's research group have included two Marie Curie fellows (Dr Miguel Araújo and Dr Kostas Triantis) and three Rhodes Scholars (Dr Niall O'Dea, Dr Ben Sharp and Dr James Watson).

Rob is the editor-in-chief of Frontiers of Biogeography, the scientific magazine of the International Biogeography Society. He served as editor-in-chief of Global Ecology & Biogeography - a journal of macroecology - from 1995 to 2004, and as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biogeography, the leading international journal in biogeography from 2004 to 2015. Rob is a founding member of the International Biogeography Society, was a Director-at-Large from 2005-2006, was co-convener of the biennial meeting, Tenerife 9-13 January 2007, and was President of the International Biogeography Society for 2009-2010.