The Alan Turing Institute appoints chief

Microsoft Research Cambridge head Andrew Blake has been appointed director of the new Alan Turing Institute in the UK. 

In a statement, The Alan Turing Institute, which will develop the use of advanced mathematics, computer science, algorithms and ‘Big Data’, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Andrew Blake has agreed to become the Institute’s first Director. His experience, drive, wisdom and enthusiasm will get the Institute off to a great start.”

Blake, who will join in October, added: “I am very excited to be chosen for this unique opportunity to lead The Alan Turing Institute. The vision of bringing together the mathematical and computer scientists from the country’s top universities to develop the new discipline of data science, through an independent institute with strategic links to commerce and industry, is very compelling. The institute has a societally important mission and ambitious research goals. We will go all out to achieve them."

The Institute is a joint venture between the universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Oxford, Warwick, UCL and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). 

It is being funded over five years with £42 million from the UK government. The university partners are contributing £5 million each, totaling £25 million. In addition, the Institute will seek to partner with other business and government bodies.

The creation of the Institute has been coordinated by the EPSRC which invests in research and postgraduate training across the UK. 

Blake bio

As well as serving as head of Microsoft Research Cambridge, Blake is an honorary professor in information engineering at the University of Cambridge, and a leading researcher in computer vision.

In 2010 he became laboratory director at Microsoft, was appointed to the council of the Royal Society, and to the council of the EPSRC in 2012. He holds honorary doctorates at the Universities of Edinburgh and Sheffield.

In 1999 he moved to Microsoft Research in Cambridge to found the Computer Vision Group which developed algorithms for image processing and 3D vision underlying several Microsoft technologies. 

He studied mathematics and electrical sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge and after a year as a Kennedy Scholar at MIT and time in the electronics industry, he completed a PhD in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh in 1983.