Christopher M. Bishop
Chris Bishop has a B.A. in Physics with First Class Honours from Oxford,
and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University
of Edinburgh with a thesis on quantum field theory. After graduating he joined Culham
Laboratory where he worked on the theory of magnetically
confined plasmas for eight years as part of the European controlled
fusion programme.
He subsequently developed an interest in pattern recognition, and became Head
of the Applied Neurocomputing Centre at AEA Technology. In 1993 he was elected
to a Chair in the Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Aston
University, where he was head of the Neural
Computing Research Group. He then took a sabbatical during which time he
was principal organiser of the six month international research programme on
Neural
Networks and Machine Learning at the Isaac
Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge, which ran from July
to December 1997.
After completion of the Newton Institute programme he joined the
Microsoft
Research Laboratory in Cambridge where he became Deputy Managing
Director, and later the Chief Research Scientist. He is a Partner in
Microsoft, and is head of
the Machine Learning
and Perception group. In 2010 he was awarded the accolade of
Distinguished Scientist, representing the highest level of research
distinction within Microsoft, and is currently the only person in
Europe holding this title.
At the same time as he joined Microsoft Research, he was elected to a
Chair
of Computer Science at the University
of Edinburgh where he is a member of the Institute
for Adaptive and Neural Computation in the School
of Informatics. He is also a Fellow of Darwin
College, Cambridge, a Fellow of the
British
Computer Society, and a Fellow of the
Royal Statistical Society. He has been awarded Honorary Doctor of Science
degrees by Oxford
Brookes University, and the
University of East Anglia.
In 2004 he was elected Fellow
of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in 2007 he was elected Fellow
of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In 2009 he was elected
Corresponding Academician of the
Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering.
In 2008 he presented the 180th Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, with the title Hi-tech Trek: The Quest for the Ultimate Computer,
which were broadcast on UK national television. The Lectures were repeated in
Tokyo in August 2009, for broadcast on television in Japan. In
2009, Chris was awarded the
Tam Dalyell Prize "for excellence in engaging the public with
science", and in 2011 he was awarded the
Rooke Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering "for his
"persistent drive in
engaging members of the public in the vital work of engineers and
their contribution to society".
In 2010 he was elected
Vice President of the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Chris is the author of the leading textbook Neural Networks for Pattern Recognition (Oxford University Press, 1995) which has
over 16,000
citations, and which helped to bring statistical concepts into the
mainstream of the machine learning field. His latest textbook Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning
(Springer, 2006) has over 5,000 citations, and has been widely
adopted.
His research interests include probabilistic approaches to machine learning,
as well as their application to fields such as biomedical sciences and healthcare.
Chris holds a full commercial Air Transport Pilot's Licence. He is
a member of the Institute of
Explosives Engineers, and a member of the Association of Stage
Pyrotechnicians. For relaxation he enjoys flying
light aircraft, including aerobatics in an
Extra 200 unlimited-category aerobatic
aircraft. He is married and has two children.
External link:
profile from Scientific Computing World |
