Professor Nick Jennings

Department of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Email: nrj@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Web: click here

Nick Jennings is Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Electronics and Computer Science (one of only 6 computer science departments in the country to get the top rating of 5* for its research) at Southampton University where he carries out basic and applied research in agent-based computing. He is head of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group (which consists of some 80 research staff and postgraduate students) and is also the Chief Scientific Officer for lost wax.

Professor Jennings helped pioneer the use of agent-based techniques for real-world applications; developing systems in the domains of: process control, business process management (agent-enabled workflow), e-commerce, telecommunications network management, virtual laboratories, and scientific data interpretation. The early systems represent some of the first real-world applications of multiagent technology. This application-oriented experience highlighted the need to focus research attention on the field of agent-based software engineering where he developed the Gaia methodology. On the theoretical side, he has made contributions to the areas of automated negotiation and auctions, cooperative problem solving, and socially rational decision making.

Professor Jennings has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences (including: IJCAI, OOPSLA, ICMAS, PRICAI), he initiated two major international conferences (The Practical Application of Agents and Multi-Agent Systems (PAAM) and Autonomous Agents), and initiated the Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages (ATAL) workshop series. He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, a member of the scientific advisory boards of Frictionless Commerce, Sheads! and the German AI Institute (DFKI), a steering committee member of the International Conference on Autonomous Agents, the ATAL workshop, and the UK Multi-Agent Systems Workshop (UKMAS), a series editor for Springer-Verlag's Agent Technology series, a member of the management committee of AgentLink (the European network of excellence in agent-based computing), and a founding director of the International Foundation for Multi-Agent Systems. He has published some 150 articles on various facets of agent-based computing, holds 2 patents (3 more pending), written one monograph, and co-edited five books. He is in the top 175 most cited computer scientists (out of 600,000) according to the citeseer digital library.

He was the recipient of the Computers and Thought Award (the premier award for a young AI scientist) in 1999 for his contributions to practical agent architectures and applications of multi-agent systems (this is the first time in the Award's 30 year history that it has been given to someone based in Europe) and the receipient of an IEE Achievement Medal in 2000 for his work on agent-based computing.