Professor Collins has made major contributions to science and technology in Australia, with a strong emphasis on the nation's economic wellbeing.

For 17 years he worked for AWA Limited on a variety of solid-state electronic devices, making many inventions. For the past decade he has held the Chair of Applied Physics in Sydney University, where his work has continued to emphasize potential applications, especially to solar energy conversion, and more recently to radically improved thermally insulating windows.

Professor Collins also serves as the first Chairman of ANSTO (set up following a review of AAEC, of which review he was also Chairman).