About

Professor Tom Crick MBE FLSW FAcSS

I’m Professor of Digital Policy at Swansea University (2018-present) and Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2023-present). Whilst my disciplinary background is in computer science and informatics, my academic interests (see publications) sit at the research-policy-practice interface, identifying and addressing domain problems with broad digital, data-driven and computational themes, and especially focusing on the impact on citizens, culture and the economy: from STEM and digital education, technology policy, and digital economy and infrastructure, through to data science, artificial 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 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; in 2023, I was awarded the Hugh Owen Medal by the Learned Society of Wales in recognition of significant contributions to educational research, as well as a BCS Lovelace Medal for outstanding contributions to computing education. 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’ve previously been a NED of Industry Wales (2021-2024), a Welsh Government body whose primary role is to support engineering, technology and manufacturing businesses in Wales; a NED of the Ofcom Advisory Committee for Wales (2021-2023), which advises Ofcom about the interests and opinions, in relation to communications matters, of persons living in Wales; as well as a two-term trustee of the British Science Association (2011-2017) and two-term trustee/NED of the Campaign for Science & Engineering (2011-2017).