Ross Llewelyn Gwyther was born on 16 August 1949. He received his undergraduate education at Flinders University, then earned his PhD from the University of Queensland Department of Physics in 1996 with a thesis titled An investigation of aseismic fault processes in California with borehole strain measurements. He had a long career as a geophysicist at UQ and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), followed by ten years as an organiser with the National Tertiary Education Union. He retired in 2013. He has been actively involved in labour, environment and peace movements for over 50 years. He was a founding committee member of both the Anti-Uranium Campaign in Brisbane in 1976, and People for Nuclear Disarmament in 1983. Since then, he has played prominent roles in the campaign groups Just Peace and the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network. He has also served on the management committee of the Brisbane Labour History Association, and with the retired trade unionists' group, Vintage Reds.