Robert Stevenson (1772-1850) was a Scottish civil engineer and lighthouse designer, renowned for his pioneering contributions to maritime safety. Succeeding his stepfather as chief engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board, he designed and supervised the construction of over a dozen lighthouses along the treacherous coasts of Scotland. His most monumental work is the Bell Rock Lighthouse, completed in 1811 on a submerged rock off the coast of Angus and considered one of the wonders of industrial engineering. Stevenson was a key innovator, introducing the use of intermittent and coloured lights to allow mariners to distinguish between different lighthouses, and significantly improving reflector systems. His extensive career also included the design of bridges, harbours, canals, and railways. For his scientific merits, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1815. He founded a dynasty of engineers, which was continued by his sons and his grandson, the famous writer Robert Louis Stevenson.