Gilbert (Rip) W. Collins was born in Detroit, MI, USA. He received the B.S./B.A. degrees in physics/mathematics from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA, in 1983, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA, in 1986 and 1989, respectively. From 1989 to 2016, he was with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, USA, as a Staff Physicist (1989–1995), a Group Leader for Hydrogen Research (1995–2005), a Project Leader for Implosions and Hydrodynamics (1997–2006), a Group Leader for Shock Physics (2002–2016), a Associate Division Leader for Physics (2011–2016), the Director for the Center for High Energy Density Physics (2015–2016), and a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff (2014–2016). Since 2016, he has been with the University of Rochester, Rochester NY, USA, as a Tracy Hyde Harris Professor of mechanical engineering and physics and astronomy, and an Associate Director for the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. He holds a visiting scientist position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and visiting professorships at The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, U.K., and Oxford University, Oxford, U.K.