Bruce graduated in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, then studied for a PhD on wheat diseases at Rothamsted Research, with some funding from the Perry Foundation. He has studied diseases of arable crops, especially wheat, barley and oilseed rape, with a focus on integrated disease management through forecasting severity of epidemics, understanding plant resistance to pathogens, estimating yield losses and predicting effects of climate change. For the last decade, he has worked at the University of Hertfordshire, where he is now Emeritus Professor of Plant Pathology. He has been a member of AHDB committees and has strong links with oilseed rape scientists in China and Egypt.