Sir Gordon was born in St Andrews, Fife and brought up in Inverness. He attended Inverness Royal Academy, followed by the University of Glasgow, where he studied Engineering. He had a distinguished career and completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh. He spent some time at the University of Minnesota as a Harkness Fellow and a visiting Professor at the University of Texas. In 1967, he moved to Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and from 1971 to 1986 was Professor of Chemical Engineering and Head of the Department of the Chemical and Process Engineering at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.