Prof Simon Dobson

Prof Simon Dobson

Deputy Head of School

Professor

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 1626
Email
Simon.Dobson@st-andrews.ac.uk
Office
C0.27
Location
Jack Cole Building (Computer Science )

 

Biography

Simon Dobson is Professor of Computer Science in the School of Computer Science at the University of ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø, and was Head of School from 2007 – 2021. He was elected Fellow of the , Scotland's national academy, in 2020, and serves as a science adviser to the Scottish government as a member of the .

Simon's main home page and blog can be found at .

Simon works on complex and sensor systems, especially on sensor analytics and the modelling of complex processes. His research has generated over 150 internationally peer-reviewed , driven by leadership roles in research grants worth over EUR30M – most recently as part of a £5M EPSRC-funded programme grant in the He has served, amongst other activities, on the steering committee of the ACSOS conference; as programme and general chairs for the IEEE International Conference on Autonomic Computing; as an associate editor of ACM Transactions on Autonomous and Adaptive Systems; as a member of the executive of , the expert committee on UK computing research; as the chair of the BCS Distinguished PhD Dissertations award panel; and on the programme committees of a wide range of leading international conferences and specialised workshops. He was a director and vice-president of the from 2006 – 2009, and has served on a number of national and EU committees and strategic initiatives.

Simon has previously worked at the ; at and in Ireland; and was also the founder and CEO of Aurium, a research-led Dublin-based start-up company. He holds a BSc from the and DPhil from the , both in computer science, is a and a Fellow of the .

Teaching

At undergraduate level I teach:

As part of the new Digital MSc in Data Science I teach:

  • CS5728 Complex systems modelling and simulation

I also supervise final-year, MSci, and MSc projects.

Research areas

I'm a computer scientist interested in complex systems, where chains of cause and effect can be difficult to establish. I build computational tools for simulation at scale and in the cloud, integrate sensors and real-time data, and develop new methods for data analytics.

PhD supervision

  • Adamu Habu
  • Jiawei Luo
  • Thomas Martin
  • µþ±ð°ù²Ôé&²Ô²ú²õ±è;±·´Ç°ù³Ù¾±±ð°ù

Selected publications

  • Open access
    Mann, P. S. & Dobson, S. A., 3 Jun 2025, In: Physical Review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics. 111, p. 1-7 7 p., 064301 .

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Nortier, B. L., Dobson, S. & Battiston, F., 5 Nov 2025, In: Physical Review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics. 112, p. 1-9 9 p., 054302.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Mann, P., Fang, L. & Dobson, S., Dec 2025, In: Journal of Physics: Complexity. 6, 4, p. 1-20 20 p., 045012.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Zheng, T., Mitchell, J. B. O. & Dobson, S. A., 13 Aug 2024, In: ACS Omega. 9, 32, p. 35209-35222 14 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Mann, P. S. & Dobson, S. A., 8 May 2023, In: Physical Review E. 107, 13 p., 054303.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Schiemer, M., Fang, L., Dobson, S. & Ye, J., 8 Jul 2023, In: Pervasive and Mobile Computing. 93, 20 p., 101817.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Mann, P. S., Smith, V. A., Mitchell, J. B. O. & Dobson, S. A., 30 Apr 2022, In: Physical Review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics. 105, 4, 14 p., 044314.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Dobson, S. A., 18 Apr 2022, In: Journal of Open Source Software. 7, 72, 3 p., 03764.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Mann, P. S., Smith, V. A., Mitchell, J. B. O. & Dobson, S. A., 20 Jul 2022, In: Physical Review. E, Statistical, nonlinear, and soft matter physics. 106, 1, 20 p., 014304.

    Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

  • Open access
    Fang, L., Liu, X., Su, X., Ye, J., Dobson, S., Hui, P. & Tarkoma, S., 2021, Wireless Mobile Communication and Healthcare: 9th EAI International Conference, MobiHealth 2020, Virtual Event, November 19, 2020, Proceedings. Ye, J., O'Grady, M. J., Civitarese, G. & Yordanova, K. (eds.). Cham: Springer, p. 116-130 15 p. (Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering; vol. 362 LNICST).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution