Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein

UKRI Board member

Headshot of Anthony Finkelstein.Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein is a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Board.

Anthony is the President of City, University of London. He is a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is also:

  • a member of Academia Europaea
  • a fellow of City and Guilds of London Institute
  • a distinguished fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies

He has an honorary DSc from City, University of London.

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.

While 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 artificial intelligence 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 is a visiting Professor at Imperial College London, University of South Australia and formerly at the National Institute for Informatics, Tokyo, Japan.

He is Professor of Software Systems Engineering with interests across computer science and in all aspects of the development of complex software systems. In particular he is interested in software development methods, tools and business context. He has built successful spin-outs and advises start-up companies. He says:

I have always thought of myself as an engineer who happens to be an academic, rather than an academic who happens who happens to be an engineer!

Finkelstein was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to computer science and engineering and was knighted in the 2022 New Year Honours for public service.

Last updated: 25 August 2023

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