Sir Timothy Michael Martin O'Shea (born 28 March 1949, Hamburg, Germany) is a British computer scientist and academic. He was the

Vice-Chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

and Principal of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

from 2002 to 2018.

Biography

O'Shea grew up in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, attended the

Royal Liberty School The Royal Liberty School is a secondary school for boys aged 11 to 16, located in Gidea Park in the London Borough of Havering, England. The school is situated on Upper Brentwood Road about 400 metres north of Gidea Park railway station, and ...

, in

Romford Romford is a large town in east London and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Havering. It is located northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Historically, Romfo ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. A computer scientist, he was Master of Birkbeck College from 1998 to 2002 and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

from 2001. A graduate of the Universities of Sussex and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

, he has worked in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

and for the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

where he founded the Computer Assisted Learning Research Group and worked on a range of educational technology research and development projects, later becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor there. He was a Research Fellow at the

, Department of Artificial Intelligence, from 1974 to 1978. The most translated of his ten books is ''Learning and Teaching with Computers'', co-authored with John Self and his most recent 2007 book, ''In Order to Learn'', published by

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, was co-edited with Frank Ritter, Josef Nerb and Erno Lehtinen. O'Shea became Principal of the University of Edinburgh in October 2002. Since his appointment he has sat on various boards including the Boards of

Scottish Enterprise Scottish Enterprise is a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government which encourages economic development, enterprise, innovation and investment in business. The body covers the eastern and central parts of Scotland whilst similar ...

, the Intermediary Technology Institute Scotland Ltd, the

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lan ...

, the Governing Body of the

Roslin Institute The Roslin Institute is an animal sciences research institute at Easter Bush, Midlothian, Scotland, part of the University of Edinburgh, and is funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. It is best known for creat ...

and has been Convenor of the Research and Commercialisation Committee of

Universities Scotland Universities Scotland was formed in 1992 as the Committee of Scottish Higher Education Principals (COSHEP) adopting its current name in 2000, when Universities UK was also formed. It represents 19 autonomous higher education institutions, 16 of ...

and Acting Convener of Universities Scotland. In 2004 he was elected Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. He was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours. O'Shea received an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in 2008 On 21 June 2016, it was announced that O'Shea would step down from his position as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the university in September 2017.

Boards and Committees

Since January 2008, O’Shea has been Chair of

Jisc Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector. History T ...

(formerly the Joint Information Systems Committee). He is also Chair of the Scottish Institute for Enterprise, the Board of Directors of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the Board of Newbattle Abbey College Trust. He sits on the Council of the

Confucius Institute Confucius Institutes (CI; ) are public educational and cultural promotion programs funded and arranged currently by the , a government-organized non-governmental organization (GONGO) under the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic o ...

Headquarters, and is currently a member of the German Initiative for Excellence, or 'Excellenzinitiative'. He has served two terms both as a Trustee of the

and as a member of the main Board of

. Between 2009 and 2012 he was the Convener of

. He was also served as Deputy President of the French Government's Initiatives d’ Excellence en Formations Innovantes

Academic Board and Advisory Positions

University of the People (Member of President's Council)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oshea, Timothy Principals of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Sussex Alumni of the University of Leeds Edinburgh Festival Fringe staff 1949 births Living people Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Jisc Knights Bachelor Masters of Birkbeck, University of London People educated at the Royal Liberty Grammar School University of the People people