Dame Ursula Hilda Mary Martin (born 3 August 1953) is a British

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

, with research interests in

theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...

and

formal methods In computer science, formal methods are mathematics, mathematically rigorous techniques for the formal specification, specification, development, Program analysis, analysis, and formal verification, verification of software and computer hardware, ...

. She is also known for her activities aimed at encouraging women in the fields of computing and mathematics. Since 2019, she has served as a professor at the

School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in informatics. It was created in 1998 from the former department of artificial intel ...

. From 20142018, Martin was a professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

in the

Department of Computer Science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to applied disciplines (including the design and ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and holds an

EPSRC The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a British Research Council that provides government funding for grants to undertake research and postgraduate degrees in engineering and the physical sciences, mainly to univers ...

Established Career Fellowship. Prior to this she held a chair of Computer Science in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at

Queen Mary, University of London Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

, where she was Vice-Principal of Science and Engineering, 20052009.

Education

Martin was born in London on 3 August 1953 to Anne Louise (née Priestman) and Captain Geoffrey Richard Martin. She was educated at Abbey College at

Malvern Wells Malvern Wells is a village and civil parish south of Great Malvern in the Malvern Hills district of Worcestershire, England. The parish, once known as South Malvern, was formed in 1894 from parts of the civil parishes of Hanley Castle, Welland ...

. In 1975 she graduated with an MA from

Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college at Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college status by the un ...

, and in 1979 with a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...

, both in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Career and research

Martin began in mathematics working in

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

, later moving into

string rewriting system In theoretical computer science and mathematical logic a string rewriting system (SRS), historically called a semi-Thue system, is a rewriting system over strings from a (usually finite) alphabet. Given a binary relation R between fixed strings ...

s. She has held academic posts at

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

, the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

and

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

. She has made sabbatical visits to

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

and

SRI International SRI International (SRI) is a nonprofit organization, nonprofit scientific research, scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. It was established in 1946 by trustees of Stanford Univer ...

(

Menlo Park Menlo Park may refer to: Places *Menlo Park, New Jersey, a section of Edison, New Jersey, location of Thomas Edison's laboratories **Menlo Park Mall, a shopping mall in Edison **Menlo Park Terrace, New Jersey, a section of nearby Woodbridge Townsh ...

). In 2004 she was a visiting fellow at the

Oxford Internet Institute The Oxford Internet Institute (OII) serves as a hub for interdisciplinary research, combining social and computer science to explore information, communication, and technology. It is an integral part of the University of Oxford's Social Science ...

. From 1992 to 2002, Martin was Professor of Computer Science at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. She was the second female professor at the University, following

Margaret Fairlie Margaret Fairlie Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, FRCOG Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, FRCSE (1891–1963) was a Scottish academic and Gynaecology, gynaecologist. Fairlie spent most of her career working at Dundee Roy ...

(Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1940), since its foundation in 1411. From 2003 to 2005, Martin was seconded to the

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 56 faculty members, 45 support staff, 105 research staff, and about 205 researc ...

part-time and served as the director of the Women@CL project to lead local, national and international initiatives for

women in computing Women in computing were among the first programmers in the early 20th century, and contributed substantially to the industry. As technology and practices altered, the role of women as programmers has changed, and the recorded history of the fi ...

, supported by

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

and Intel Cambridge Research. She was a Fellow of

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

. From 2014 to 2023, Martin was principle investigator on the

project ''The Social Machine of Mathematics'' on mathematics as a large-scale collaborative enterprise between humans and computers. She was one of the organisers of the ''Big Proof'' programme series held at the

Isaac Newton Institute The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences is an international research institute for mathematics and its applications at the University of Cambridge. It is named after one of the university's most illustrious figures, the mathematician ...

in 2017 and 2025, and at the

International Centre for Mathematical Sciences The International Centre for Mathematical Sciences (ICMS) is a mathematical research centre based in Edinburgh. According to its website, the centre is "designed to bring together mathematicians and practitioners in science, industry and comme ...

in 2019. Martin has served as an advisory editor for the ''Annals of Pure and Applied Logic'' journal (published by

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

) and on the editorial boards for ''The Journal of Computation and Mathematics'' (

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's Learned society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

) and ''

Formal Aspects of Computing ''Formal Aspects of Computing'' (''FAC'') is a peer-reviewed Gold Open Access journal published by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and BCS (the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT). The journal is closely associated ...

'' (

Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

Publications

Her publications include: * with Christopher Hollings and Adrian Rice, ''Ada Lovelace: The Making of a Computer Scientist'', Oxford:

The Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in B ...

, 2018, 114 pp.

Honours and awards

Martin was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) in the

2012 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2012 were announced on 31 December 2011 in the United Kingdom, New Zealand,Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

(FRSE) and the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senio ...

(FREng). In 2025 she was appointed

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(DBE) in the King's

2025 Birthday Honours The 2025 King's Birthday and Operational Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Charles III, King Charles III to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to reward and highlight good ...

for services to computer science.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Ursula Hilda Mary 1953 births Living people Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Alumni of the University of Warwick British computer scientists Formal methods people University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Academics of the University of Manchester Academics of Royal Holloway, University of London Academics of the University of St Andrews Fellows of Newnham College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Female fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Academics of Queen Mary University of London Members of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford British academic journal editors British women computer scientists Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 21st-century British women engineers