Professor Shaun Lawson

Shaun is Professor of Social Computing and Head of the Department of Computer & Information Sciences at Northumbria University. He is Director of the University's £9.5 million UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Citizen Centred AI, and he leads the University's Peak of Research Excellence in Computerised Society and Digital Citizens. He was formerly lead for the Northumbria Social Computing (NorSC) Research Group which he founded when moved to Northumbria in 2015. Prior to joining Northumbria he founded and led, for 10 years, the Lincoln Social Computing (LiSC) Research Centre at the University of Lincoln. His research lies at the boundaries between computing, design and the social sciences, and explores the use and significance of social media, and other collaborative and participatory digital services, in people’s lives. This includes a focus on the design, implementation and evaluation of new social platforms, applications and services as well as analysis of text, speech and image data. He was appointed the UK’s first Professor in Social Computing in 2011. He has conducted applied and cross-disciplinary work in areas including mental health and wellbeing, politics, activism, animal behaviour and sustainability. He has held, as PI, grants totalling over £12 million from funders such as EPSRC, ESRC, the EU, Microsoft Research, as well as industry, and is the co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed publications. He is the founding chair of the UK’s SIGCHI chapter, and a full member of both EPSRC and ESRC Peer Review Colleges.