Chris Williams: Biography
I did Physics at Cambridge, graduating in 1982 (BA in Physics and
Theoretical Physics, Class I), and then did a further year of study
known as Part III Maths (Distinction, 1983). I was interested in the
"neural networks" field at that time, but it was difficult to find
anyone to work with. I then switched directions for a while, doing an
MSc in Water Resources at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and
going on to work in Lesotho, Southern Africa in low-cost
sanitation. In 1988 I returned to academia, studing neural networks/AI
with Geoff Hinton at the University of Toronto (MSc 1990, PhD
1994). In September 1994 I moved to Aston University as a Research
Fellow and was made a Lecturer in August 1995. I moved to the
Department of Artificial Inteligence at the University of Edinburgh in
July 1998, was promoted to Reader in the School of
Informatics in October 2000, and Professor of Machine Learning
in October 2005. With Barbara Stuart I have two daughters,
Kate, born in November 1993 and Ruth, born in July 1995. Barbara and I
separated in 2012. In my
spare time I like to go hill-walking and listen to music.
Chris Williams