Nick Jennings (computer scientist)

Nicholas Robert Jennings is a British computer scientist who was appointed Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University in 2021. He was previously the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise at Imperial College London, the UK's first Regius Professor of Computer Science, and the inaugural Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government on National Security. His research covers the areas of AI, autonomous systems, agent-based computing and cybersecurity.

He has been involved in a number of company startups including Aerogility, Contact Engine, Crossword Cyber Security, Darktrace, and Reliance Cyber Science. He is the chair of the judges for the Manchester Prize for AI, and a judge of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

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

Research and career
His research focus is on developing AI systems for large-scale, open and dynamic environments. In particular, on endowing individual autonomous agents with the ability to act and interact in flexible ways, and with building systems that contain both humans and software agents that work together in partnership.

His systems have been used to save lives in the aftermath of disasters, to win Olympic medals for Team GB, and to monitor the impact of climate change on glaciers.

In undertaking this research, he has attracted grant income of £33M, published more than 700 articles (with over 480 co-authors ) and graduated over 50 PhD students (including two winners and one runner-up of the British Computer Society (BCS)/CPHC Distinguished Dissertation Award. ) He has over 95,000 citations in Google Scholar and an h-index of 134.

From 1988 he was at Queen Mary, University of London, where he was a PhD student, lecturer, reader and professor.

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 (Research and Enterprise) 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 UK's first Regius Professor of Computer Science in 2014.

From 2010 to 2015, he was the UK Government's first Chief Scientific Advisor for National Security.

In 2016, he moved to Imperial College to be the Vice-Provost (Research and Enterprise), as well as a Professor of Artificial Intelligence.

In 2021, he was appointed as the 9th Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University.

Awards
Jennings was appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 2016 New Year Honours for services to computer science and national security science.


 * 2007: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Special Recognition Award for “Intelligent agents: theory and practice” in The Knowledge Engineering Review
 * 2016: IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize (Honourable Mention) for “Theoretical and practical foundations of large-scale agent-based micro-storage in the smart grid” in Journal of AI Research
 * 2016: The Engineer’s “Collaborate to Innovate” Award for the ORCHID project
 * 2018: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Influential Paper Award for “Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology” in ACM Trans. on Software Engineering and Methodology
 * 2020: BCS Lovelace Medal
 * 2007: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Special Recognition Award for “Intelligent agents: theory and practice” in The Knowledge Engineering Review
 * 2016: IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize (Honourable Mention) for “Theoretical and practical foundations of large-scale agent-based micro-storage in the smart grid” in Journal of AI Research
 * 2016: The Engineer’s “Collaborate to Innovate” Award for the ORCHID project
 * 2018: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Influential Paper Award for “Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology” in ACM Trans. on Software Engineering and Methodology
 * 2020: BCS Lovelace Medal
 * 2016: IJCAI-JAIR Best Paper Prize (Honourable Mention) for “Theoretical and practical foundations of large-scale agent-based micro-storage in the smart grid” in Journal of AI Research
 * 2016: The Engineer’s “Collaborate to Innovate” Award for the ORCHID project
 * 2018: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Influential Paper Award for “Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology” in ACM Trans. on Software Engineering and Methodology
 * 2020: BCS Lovelace Medal
 * 2016: The Engineer’s “Collaborate to Innovate” Award for the ORCHID project
 * 2018: Int. Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems Influential Paper Award for “Developing multiagent systems: the Gaia methodology” in ACM Trans. on Software Engineering and Methodology
 * 2020: BCS Lovelace Medal

Fellowships

 * 2019: Fellow City and Guilds of London Institute
 * 2020: Honorary Fellow of the Cybernetics Society
 * 2022: Fellow of the Royal Society
 * 2019: Fellow City and Guilds of London Institute
 * 2020: Honorary Fellow of the Cybernetics Society
 * 2022: Fellow of the Royal Society
 * 2019: Fellow City and Guilds of London Institute
 * 2020: Honorary Fellow of the Cybernetics Society
 * 2022: Fellow of the Royal Society
 * 2019: Fellow City and Guilds of London Institute
 * 2020: Honorary Fellow of the Cybernetics Society
 * 2022: Fellow of the Royal Society

Personal life
Jennings is married to Jo and they have two children.