Nick Jennings (computer scientist)


Nicholas Robert Jennings is the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise at Imperial College London, where he is also a Professor of Artificial Intelligence. He was previously the first Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton and the inaugural Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government on National Security. He is an internationally recognised authority in the areas of AI, autonomous systems, agent-based computing and cybersecurity. He is involved in a number of startups including Aerogility, Contact Engine, Crossword Cyber Security, and Reliance Cyber Science. He is also an adviser to Darktrace, a member of the UK Government's AI Council and the Monaco Digital Advisory Council, and a council member for the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Education and early life

Nick was born in London. He grew up on the Isle of Portland in Dorset and attended Weymouth Grammar School and studied for an undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of Exeter. His PhD was from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London.

Research and career

Nick's research focus is on developing AI systems for large-scale, open and dynamic environments. In particular, he is interested in how to endow individual autonomous agents with the ability to act and interact in flexible ways and with effectively engineering systems that contain both humans and software agents. He is passionate about the real-world impact of research and has been involved with deployments of systems in domains such as business process management, smart energy systems, sensor networks, disaster response, telecommunications, citizen science and eDefence—and generally advocating the area of agent-oriented software engineering. His most recent project, ORCHID, developed the science of Human-Agent Collectives in which humans and software agents collaborate in a seamless manner.
In undertaking this research, he has attracted grant income of over £32M, published more than 650 articles and graduated 49 PhD students. He is one of the world's most cited computer scientists, with over 79,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 123.
From 1988 he was at Queen Mary, University of London, where he was a PhD student, research fellow, lecturer, reader and professor. He was appointed to a full professorship at the age of 31.
In 1999, he moved to the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton where he was the Deputy Head of Department, the Associate Dean for the Faculty of Engineering, Science and Maths, the Head of the Agents, Interaction and Complexity group and the Head of Department. He was appointed the Regius Professor of Computer Science in 2014.
From 2010 to 2015, he was the UK Government's Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security.
In 2016, he moved to Imperial College to be the Vice-Provost, as well as a Professor of Artificial Intelligence.

Awards

He was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to computer science and national security science.
Nick is married to Jo and they have two children. He is a keen sportsman: playing cricket for Bishops Waltham Cricket Club, previously managing a youth football team at Waltham Wolves, and being an avid West Ham United Football Club fan.