Christopher Bishop
Professor University of Edinburgh
| Microsoft Research Cambridge
Christopher Bishop is a highly accomplished computer scientist and machine learning expert, currently serving as a Microsoft Technical Fellow and Director of Microsoft Research AI4Science. He is also an Honorary Professor of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge. In addition, he has been elected a Fellow of several prestigious organizations, including the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Royal Society.
At Microsoft Research, Bishop oversees a global portfolio of industrial research and development with a strong focus on machine learning and the natural sciences. He obtained a BA in Physics from Oxford and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Edinburgh. After his Ph.D., he researched the physics of magnetically confined fusion plasmas and developed an interest in machine learning. He subsequently set up and led the Neural Computing Research Group at Aston University before joining Microsoft in 1997. Bishop was the Lab Director of Microsoft Research Cambridge from 2015 until 2022.
Bishop is the author of two highly cited and widely adopted machine learning textbooks: Neural Networks for Pattern Recognition (1995) and Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (2006). He has also worked on various machine learning applications, from computer vision to healthcare. He is a keen advocate of public engagement in science, having delivered the prestigious Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in 2008, established in 1825 by Michael Faraday and broadcast on national television.
Bishop is a member of the UK AI Council and was appointed to the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology in 2019. With his vast experience and contributions to machine learning, Bishop continues to shape the future of this vital area of research.