Blackett Lecture 2021

Our 2021 Speaker

Prof. Anthony Finkelstein CBE FREng DSc MAE FCGI

Anthony Finkelstein is the President of City, University of London and Professor of Software Systems Engineering. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and also a Member of Academia Europaea, a Fellow of City & Guilds of London Institute and a Distinguished Fellow of RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies). He has an Honorary DSc from City, University of London. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to computer science and engineering.

Until taking up the role of President, he was Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security to HM Government, a senior strategic and operational role that involves leadership of science, research and innovation across the UK's national security community. Whilst undertaking this role he retained a position at University College London (UCL) and as a Fellow of The Alan Turing Institute, the UK national institute for AI and data science, of which he was a founding trustee. Prior to this, he was Dean of UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences and before that Head of UCL Department of Computer Science. He held a Chair in Software Systems Engineering at UCL, having started his career at Imperial College, Department of Computing. He has established three successful ‘spin-out’ companies (including two ‘exits’).