My principal research interest is complex systems simulation: the application of modelling techniques developed within artificial intelligence, complexity science, maths and physics to understanding how complex systems behave. I am interested in the potential for the modelling techniques that I use to be applied to problems from many other disciplines. I have worked on problems from archaeology to zoology and my primary interests are in the life sciences and social sciences. I am also interested in self-organisation and adaptation in engineered systems, such as computational ecosystems, infrastructure systems, etc.

Short bio

After gaining a BA in cognitive science and a DPhil (PhD) in evolutionary simulation modelling from the School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences at Sussex University, I spent two years in Berlin at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development working on simulating the evolution of adaptive decision-making behaviour in people and other animals. In 1999 I took up a five-year University Research Fellowship at the University of Leeds, founded the Biosystems research group, and became a Lecturer there in 2004. In October 2005 I joined the University of Southampton as Senior Lecturer, and helped to found the Science and Engineering of Natural Systems (SENSe) research group. In 2009 I became head of the SENSe group, and also became Director of Southampton's Institute for Complex Systems Simulation (ICSS). In 2011 I was promoted to Professor of Computer Science and helped found the Agents, Interaction and Complexity (AIC) research group. In 2015 I joined the University of Bristol's Department of Computer Science as Toshiba Chair in Data Science and Simulation.