Gerard was awarded his PhD from the University of Edinburgh in 2011. His doctoral work was on the fabrication of novel silicon microchannels for use in micro-scale boiling experiments. From 2008 he was employed on the EU FP7 Hypoled project, where he characterised and modelled the electrical behaviour of organic light-emitting diodes. From 2010 he was employed on the SMART microsystem project, which involved the use of novel materials and manufacturing technologies for use in the post processing of CMOS wafers. Some of these technologies included inkjet printing, screen printing and the plating of magnetostrictive materials. His research interests include inkjet printing, functional materials, microsystems design, silicon and non-silicon microfabrication. Gerard is a member of the IEEE and the Society of Imaging Science and Technology.

Gerard started on the Sonopil project in March 2014 where he is involved with the miniaturisation and integration of components within the pill and developing novel packaging solutions.