University welcomes two new Turing Fellows

The University has welcomed two new Turing Fellows, Professor Tony Bagnall and Dr Rafael Mestre, both from the School of Electronics and Computer Science.

The Web Science Institute coordinates the University’s membership of the Turing University Network, a new strategy launched in 2023 to provide UK universities with an interest in data science and AI the opportunity to engage and collaborate both with the Institute and its broader networks.

The Turing Fellowship Scheme aims to grow the data science and AI ecosystem in the UK by supporting, retaining and developing the careers of the next generation of world-leading researchers.

Tony and Rafael join Professor Ruben Sanchez-Garcia and Professor Pamela Ugwudike from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Dr Owen Rackham from Biological Sciences who are the current Turing Fellows at Southampton.

Tony’s Fellowship will use his key research interest of Time Series Machine Learning - learning predictive models from collections of ordered, real valued series – and apply it to biomedical signals in projects involving UCL and Great Ormond Street.

Tony said: “I have been working with the Turing since 2019 and am delighted to grow that work as a Turing Fellow here at Southampton. I am keen to progress my research, engage and collaborate more with international colleagues and grow the connections of our Centres for Doctoral Training.”

Rafael’s interdisciplinary research lies at the interface of computer science and political science and responsible research on emerging technologies. He has a keen interest in computer science for social good.

Rafael said: “I am excited about my Fellowship and being able to extend my work further in and around responsible technologies. I have worked with Turing@Southampton supporting Early Career Researchers and am keen to continue that.”