Women in the department: Our faculty
Foreword by Kelsey Doerksen, President of Oxford Womxn in Computer Science (OxWoCS) 2023-24
Gender representation matters. I am a strong proponent of the phrase "you can't be what you can't see". We are much more likely to feel welcomed in spaces where we can see ourselves in others, and gender representation is a key component. One of the reoccurring sentiments I've heard from OxWoCS members has been the excitement of joining a strong community of women in STEM, and so I am pleased to introduce the women of the Department of Computer Science. Historically, computer science has been a male-dominated field, and so, by highlighting the profiles of these exceptional academics who are at the forefront of their specialisms, I hope that we can inspire female computer scientists everywhere – in particular, prospective students, and early career researchers and academics, wishing to join the department.
Gender representation shapes our understanding of who can be successful in various fields. When female computer scientists are visible in leadership positions, it breaks down stereotypes and provides a role model for young girls and women who might be interested in computer science but doubt their potential due to a lack of female representation.
Computer science touches virtually every facet of our lives. It's absolutely critical to have gender diversity in the field as it leads to better, more inclusive research. Women bring different experiences and viewpoints that can contribute to more innovative solutions and designs. Without their input, theories and products will not fully address the needs of all users.
We know that there is gender imbalance in the field, and there is still much to be done within OxWoCS and in the department, but I hope that through showcasing the representation of women at the Department of Computer Science, we can highlight the incredible community that we are continuing to build.
Dr. Anisoara Calinescu
Associate Professor Anisoara Calinescu joined the department in 2002 and was Director of Teaching in 2016/17. Anisoara has a DPhil in Engineering Science from the University of Oxford, and an MSc degree in Computer Science from the Technical University of Iasi, Romania. She has a wide range of teaching responsibilities, including undergraduate and graduate teaching, project supervision and graduate training. Her research interests include modelling and reasoning about complex systems such as financial markets and supply chains, complexity metrics, and agent-based networks.
Dr. Alessandra Cavarra
Alessandra Cavarra is a Lecturer in Software Engineering and Director of Graduate Studies for Professional Programmes. Her research interests are in formal methods and the integration of formal and semi-formal languages, and she is also involved in model-based testing. She has produced formal semantics for UML behavioural diagrams and built a tool to symbolically execute UML models and forward engineer UML models into formal specifications. She obtained an MSc and PhD in Computer Science at the University of Catania, spending time as a visiting researcher in the US and Germany. She moved to Oxford as a research fellow working on EU-funded project AGEDIS.
Professor Sadie Creese
Sadie Creese is Professor of Cyber Security, teaching threat detection, risk assessment and operational aspects of security. Her current research portfolio includes threat modelling and detection, visual analytics for cybersecurity, risk propagation logics and communication, resilience strategies, privacy, vulnerability of distributed ledgers, and understanding cyber-harm. Sadie was founding Director of the Global Cyber Security Capacity Centre (GCSCC), where she conducts research into national cybersecurity capacity, working with countries and organisations around the world. She was also founding Director of Oxford's Cybersecurity Network, now CyberSecurity@Oxford, and is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Council on Cyber Security.
Professor Edith Elkind
Edith Elkind is a Professor of Computer Science. She obtained her PhD from Princeton University in 2005. Before joining Oxford, she was a researcher at University of Warwick, University of Liverpool and Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), and a faculty member at University of Southampton and Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). Her research interests include algorithmic game theory and computational social choice, with a focus on efficient algorithms for making collective decisions. In 2018, she served as a chair on the ACM Conference on Economics and Computation (ACM EC) and International Workshop on Computational Social Choice (COMSOC).
Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg
Leslie Ann Goldberg joined the department in 2013 is currently Head of Department and Professor of Computer Science. Her main research interests lie in the foundational questions in Algorithms and Complexity Theory. Leslie is especially interested in randomised algorithms, which use probabilistic methods to solve problems, and in the rigorous, mathematical analysis of these algorithms. Leslie studied at Rice University in the US and received her PhD at The University of Edinburgh.
Professor Marina Jirotka
Marina Jirotka is Professor of Human Centred Computing. Her expertise involves co-producing user and community requirements and human computer interaction, particularly for collaborative systems. She has been at the forefront of recent work in responsible innovation in the UK and the EU, and she leads the Responsible Technology Institute, an interdisciplinary research group focussed on the responsible development of technologies. Marina is a Chartered IT Professional of the British Computer Society and sits on the ICT Ethics Specialist Group committee. She has published widely in international journals and conferences on e-Research, Human Computer Interaction, Computer Supported Cooperative Work, and Requirements Engineering.
Professor Marta Kwiatkowska
Marta Kwiatkowska is Professor of Computing Systems and heads the Automated Verification theme. She spearheaded the development of probabilistic and quantitative methods in verification on the international scene and is currently working on safety and robustness for machine learning and AI. Marta led the development of the award-winning PRISM model checker, the leading software tool of its type widely used in research and teaching. She was awarded an honorary doctorate from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 2014 and was the first female to win the Royal Society Milner Medal in 2018, having given the Milner Lecture in 2012. She is a member of Academia Europea and Fellow of the Royal Society, ACM, EATCS, BCS and the Polish Society of Arts & Sciences Abroad.
Associate Professor Ana Namburete
Associate Professor Ana Namburete joined the department in 2021 and established the Oxford Machine Learning in NeuroImaging (OMNI) Lab. She is currently working on a project advancing fetal brain imaging using MRI-informed ultrasound. Ana received an BASc in Engineering Science from Simon Fraser University and, with support from a Commonwealth Scholarship, read for a DPhil in Engineering Science at Oxford. Following a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ana secured a Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) Research Fellowship.
Professor Blanca Rodriguez
Blanca Rodriguez is Professor of Computational Medicine, Head of the Computational Biology and Health Informatics theme, and Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. Her research involves innovation in medical therapy development, through a focus on human pathophysiology using modelling and simulation, augmented by big data, machine learning and non-animal experimental methods. She leads the Computational Cardiovascular Science group, whose research is supported by collaborators in academia and industry, comprising world-leaders in cardiovascular medicine and pharmacology. Blanca is originally from Valencia, Spain, where she studied engineering at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, and gained her PhD in cardiac modelling.
Professor Niki Trigoni
Niki Trigoni is a Professor of Computer Science. She is currently Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training on Autonomous Intelligent Machines and Systems, a programme that combines machine learning, robotics, sensor systems and verification/control. She also leads the Cyber Physical Systems Group, which focuses on intelligent and autonomous sensor systems with applications in positioning, healthcare, environmental monitoring and smart cities. Niki obtained her DPhil at the University of Cambridge, and then went on to become a postdoctoral researcher at Cornell University, and a Lecturer at Birkbeck College, before joining the department.
Associate Professor Irina Voiculescu
Associate Professor Irina Voiculescu works in the area of 3D geometric modelling, with a particular focus on the analysis of images sourced from various types of medical scanners. She leads a Medical Imaging research group, which works with scans across different modalities. The group's OxMedIS software for Medical Image Segmentation is capable of processing MRI, CT, microCT, ultrasound and other medical and biological data, developing algorithms to partition each 3D image into regions with similar properties. The group's most recent experiments have successfully used machine learning techniques to segment features out of a pre-partitioned image, reducing the need for time-consuming hand-drawn training contours.
Professor Nobuko Yoshida
Professor Nobuko Yoshida joined the department from Imperial College London in 2022 as the Christopher Strachey Chair of Computing. Her research focuses on the development of theories and semantic concepts in programming languages, and on their use in concurrent and distributed systems. Her particular interest is in session types, a type-based approach to the verification of message-passing programs. In 2008, she introduced the theory of Multiparty Session Types, which went on to receive the Most Influential Paper Award at ACM's Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages in 2018. Nobuko is a Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College, an EPSRC Established Career Fellow, an Honorary Fellow at Glasgow University, and a Fellow of the British Computing Society.