About

Professor Tom Crick MBE FLSW FAcSS

I’m Professor of Digital & Policy and Deputy Pro-Vice-Chancellor at Swansea University (2018-present), having previously spent a number of years at the University of Bath and Cardiff Metropolitan University. Whilst my disciplinary background is in computer science and informatics, my research interests (see publications) are naturally interdisciplinary and sit at the research/policy/practice interface: from STEM and digital education, public policy, and digital economy and infrastructure, through to data science, computational intelligence and cyber resilience. I am Editor-in-Chief of The Computer Journal (2021-present), one of the longest-established computer science journals (since 1958), published by Oxford University Press. I am also an Editor of the Wales Journal of Education (2020-present), a bilingual platinum open access journal published by University of Wales Press.

Previously, I was the Nesta Data Science Fellow (2013-2015), developing approaches to embedding data science capability into government for more effective data-driven policymaking. I have also been a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow (2015), an HEA National Teaching Fellow (2014), a Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute (2014) and a Science Media Fellow (2011) with BBC Wales. In 2017, I was appointed MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for “services to computer science and the promotion of computer science education”; in 2020, I was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales, the national academy for science and the arts; in 2022, I was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and was also awarded an IET Achievement Medal. I’m also a Chartered Fellow of the BCS and the IET, and a Distinguished Speaker and Senior Member of the ACM.

In 2013, I co-chaired the Welsh Government’s review of the ICT curriculum and was an inaugural member of the Welsh Government’s National Digital Learning Council (2012-2016) and the UK Digital Skills Taskforce (2013-2014). In 2016, I chaired the development of a new Digital Competence Framework for all schools in Wales. In 2017, I was invited to chair the development of the Science & Technology area of learning and experience in the new Curriculum for Wales, which was published in January 2020. I was awarded the 2020 BERA Public Engagement and Impact Award for “Leading the Future of Science and Technology Education in Wales”.

Related to this education policy work, I was also a member of the expert panel for the Welsh Government’s Review of Digital Innovation and the Future of Work in Wales, which published its final report in September 2019. From 2018-2022, I was an inaugural Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales, to provide independent advice to the Welsh Government on economic and environmental infrastructure investment strategy over a 5-30 year period.

I also have a number of other affiliations: I’m an elected Member-at-Large of ACM Council (2020-present), having been Vice-Chair (2019-2021) and Member (2017-2021) of ACM Europe Council; previously, I was Vice-President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (2017-2020). I’m a non-executive director of Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water (2017-present), the sixth-largest regulated water and sewerage company in England and Wales; and an independent member/NED of Swansea Bay University Health Board (2017-present), which covers a population of approximately 400,000 people across Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. I’m also a NED of Industry Wales (2021-present), whose primary role is to support engineering, technology and manufacturing businesses in Wales; as well as a NED of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Wales (2021-present), which advises Ofcom about the interests and opinions, in relation to communications matters, of persons living in Wales. I’ve previously been a two-term trustee of the British Science Association (2011-2017) and two-term trustee/NED of the Campaign for Science & Engineering (2011-2017).