At the start of February 2026, it was ten years since I was first appointed Professor, at the age of 35. It is also more than fifteen years since I submitted my PhD at the University of Bath in September 2009, before passing my viva with minor corrections later that autumn.
I have written a few of these short “time passing” posts over the years — five years after the PhD, five years of blogging, and new roles — partly as a way of marking moments that otherwise get lost in the rush of the next meeting, deadline, paper, project, application or train journey. This one feels worth noting, not because titles are the point, but because the years between submitting the PhD, building an academic career, becoming a Professor, and now reaching a decade in that role have been such a rich, varied and often unexpected period of academic and public-facing work.
When I submitted my PhD in 2009, I could not have predicted the precise shape of the next fifteen years. Nor, when I was first appointed a Professor in 2016, could I have predicted the decade that followed: from Cardiff Met to Swansea, and now Bristol; computer science, education, digital policy, civic mission, research leadership, learned societies, public engagement, national academies, board roles, and government science advice. The work has changed, the institutions have changed, and the wider technological and policy landscape has changed dramatically.
But the underlying interests have remained surprisingly consistent: how digital, data-driven and computational technologies affect people, institutions, education, culture, the economy and society; and how evidence, expertise and public purpose can be better connected.
I have been extremely fortunate throughout this period to work with brilliant colleagues, collaborators, students, mentors and friends across universities, government, schools, learned societies, professional bodies, industry and the wider civic sphere, particularly in Wales. I have learned a huge amount from them, and from the many teams and institutions that have given me opportunities, challenged my thinking, and trusted me with interesting and sometimes difficult work.
Most importantly, I remain enormously grateful to my family for their support, patience and good humour through the many highs, frustrations, late nights, weekends, deadlines, emails, events, applications, meetings and “just one more thing” moments that come with academic and public-facing roles.
Ten years on from becoming a Professor, and more than fifteen years on from completing my PhD, I am still learning what academic leadership means. Not just as a marker of seniority or progression, but as a responsibility: to support others, to create space for ideas and people to develop, to contribute where expertise can be useful, and to keep asking better questions.
So, a small moment of reflection — and gratitude. Here’s to the next decade.
Digital Society & Policy 