Nick Jennings is Professor of Computer Science in the 5*-rated School of Electronics and Computer Science at Southampton University where he carries out research in agent-based computing and complex adaptive systems. He is Deputy Head of School (Research), Head of the Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group (which consists of some 120 research staff and postgraduate students), Director of the BAE Systems / EPSRC Strategic Partnership on Decentralised Data and Information Systems, and the Chief Scientific Officer for Lost Wax.
Professor Jennings helped pioneer the application of multi-agent technology; developing some of the first real-world systems. This focus led him into the areas of agent-based software engineering and the Semantic Grid. More recently, his focus is on automated bargaining, auctions, markets, mechanism design, coalition formation, decentralised control, and trust and reputation.
Professor Jennings has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international conferences (including: IJCAI, OOPSLA, ICMAS, PRICAI, AAMAS), he co-initiated the ACM's Autonomous Agents Conference and the Agent Theories, Architectures and Languages (ATAL) workshop series. He was the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems and is on the editorial boards of: ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Computational Intelligence, Journal of Logic and Computation, The Knowledge Engineering Review, Int. Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, Int. Journal of Web Semantics, Int. Journal of Applied Logic and the Int Journal of Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems. He is a member of the scientific advisory board of the German AI Institute (DFKI), a series editor for Springer-Verlag's Agent Technology series, and a founding director of the International Foundation for Multi-Agent Systems. He frequently advises Government and international agencies on strategic research development; most recently he has been involved in the Office of Science and Technology's Foresight programs on Cognitive Systems and Cybertrust, and the IEE's Sector Panel on IT.
He has published over 300 articles (with over 150 co-authors), graduated 20 PhD students, and holds 3 patents. He is in the top 100 most cited computer scientists (out of 790,000) according to the CiteSeer digital library, is in the top 150 most cited engineers according to the ISI Web of Knowledge and has an h-index of 55 in Google Scholar. He has received a number of awards for his research: the Computers and Thought Award (the premier award for a young AI scientist) in 1999 (this is the only time in the Award's 35 year history that it has been given to someone based in Europe), an IEE Achievement Medal in 2000, and the ACM Autonomous Agents Research Award in 2003. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the British Computer Society, the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour (AISB), and the European artificial intelligence association (ECCAI) and a member of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC).