Nicholas Robert Jennings is a British computer scientist who was appointed Vice-Chancellor and President of Loughborough University in 2021. He was previously the Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise at Imperial College London, the UK's first Regius Professor of Computer Science, and the inaugural Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Government on National Security. His research covers the areas of AI, autonomous systems, agent-based computing and cybersecurity.
He has been involved in a number of company startups including Aerogility, Contact Engine, Crossword Cyber Security, Darktrace, and Reliance Cyber Science. He was the inaugural chair of the judges for the Manchester Prize for AI, and is a judge of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.
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Education and early life
Jennings was born in London. He grew up on the Isle of Portland in Dorset and attended Weymouth Grammar School. He studied for an undergraduate degree in computer science at the University of Exeter and his PhD was from the Department of Electronic Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London.