Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng

Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng is Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice

President (International Engagement) and Director of the Web Science Institute at the

University of Southampton. She was Dean of the Faculty of Physical Science and

Engineering from 2010 to 2014 and Head of the School of Electronics and Computer

Science (ECS) from 2002 to 2007.

One of the first computer scientists to undertake serious research in multimedia and

hypermedia, she has been at its forefront ever since. The influence of her work has been

significant in many areas including digital libraries, the development of the Internet, and the

emerging research discipline of Web Science. Her current research includes exploring

interfaces between the social and physical sciences through the development of Web

Science and the study of online systems through a sociotechnical lens. She is Managing

Director of the Web Science Trust.

She became a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the 2009 UK New Year's Honours

list and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in the same year. She was elected

President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in July 2008, and was the first

person from outside North America to hold this position. She is a Fellow of the Royal

Academy of Engineering, the Institution of Engineering and Technology and the ACM. She is

a distinguished fellow of the British Computer Society.

She was Senior Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2005-8), a member of

the UK Prime Minister's Council for Science and Technology (2004-10), and a founder

member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council (2005-10). She was

President of the British Computer Society (2003-4), an EPSRC Senior Research Fellow

(1996-2002) and a member of the EPSRC Council (1997-2002).

In 2017, Dame Wendy was co-Chair of the UK government’s AI Review, which was

published in October 2017. She became a member of the AI Council and was appointed the

first UK AI Skills Champion in 2018. She was Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute (2020-

2023). She is currently the co-Chair of the ACM Publications Board and Editor-in-Chief of

Royal Society Open Science. She is an advisor to the UK government and many other

governments and companies around the world and in 2023 was appointed to the United

Nations high-level advisory body on artificial intelligence. Her latest book, Four Internets, co-

written with Kieron O’Hara and published by OUP in 2021, is about data, geopolitics and the governance of cyberspace.

Through her leadership roles on national and international bodies, she has shattered many

glass ceilings, readily deploying her position on numerous national and international bodies

to promote the role of women in SET and acting as an important role model for others.