Gilles earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from Laurentian University, a master’s degree with a specialisation in psychometrics from the University of Western Ontario, and a PhD in psychology from Swinburne University of Technology. He has been an academic since 2004, conducting widely cited research on human intelligence and individual differences more broadly. He also serves on editorial boards for journals such as Intelligence, the Journal of Personality, and Personality and Individual Differences.