Dr. Rubinstein received Sc.B./Sc.M. degrees in engineering at Brown University in 1981/83. He received an M.D. and Ph.D. in bioengineering at the University of Washington in 1987/88. He completed postdoctoral research training and residency in otolaryngology in 1994 at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He completed a neurotology fellowship at the University of Iowa in 1995, staying as assistant then associate professor of otolaryngology and bioengineering. In 2003/04 he was the Boerhaave Professor at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He is currently Virginia Merrill Bloedel Professor of Otolaryngology and Bioengineering and Director, Bloedel Hearing Research Center, University of Washington. He is past-president of the American Auditory Society and president of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology. He is a member of the Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum as well as a senior member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He has published over 110 peer-reviewed articles in both clinical and basic science journals and has mentored 18 predoctoral and postdoctoral trainees in basic and translational research, as well as providing clinical training to a large number of otolaryngology residents and fellows. His laboratory studies models of, signal processing in, and perception with cochlear implants and is collaborating in the development of a vestibular implant. His clinical interests encompass management of tumors of the lateral skull base, as well as auditory, vestibular, and facial nerve discorders.