Deputy Managing Director
Microsoft Research Cambridge
Microsoft Corp.

Andrew Blake is a Deputy Managing Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge, where he is responsible for academic interaction and business operations, he also jointly leads the Machine Learning and Perception Group (MLP), where his main research focus is computer vision.

Andrew graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1977 with a BA in Mathematics and Electrical Sciences. After a year as a Kennedy Scholar at MIT and two years in the defence electronics industry, he studied for a doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, which was awarded in 1983.

He ran the Visual Dynamics Research Group as faculty in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford from 1987-1999. He became a Professor in 1996, and was a Royal Society Senior Research Fellow from 1998-1999.

Andrew then joined Microsoft Research Cambridge as Senior Researcher to found the Vision Group within MLP, though he continues as visiting Professor of Engineering with the University of Oxford. In 2007 Andrew was also appointed honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, and at the University of Cambridge.

He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1998 and Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005. In 2006 the Royal Academy of Engineering awarded him its Silver Medal. 2007 saw Andrew elected as a Fellow of the IEEE and also the recipient of the 2007 IET Mountbatten Medal.

Andrew has published several books including “Visual Reconstruction” with A. Zisserman (MIT press), “Active Vision” with Alan Yuille (MIT Press) and “Active Contours” with Michael Isard (Springer-Verlag). His research interests are in building machine intelligence into image processing software, with applications to motion capture, image editing, remote collaboration and medical imaging.