Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey

Professor Nigel Gilbert is Director of the Centre for the Evaluation of Complexity across the Nexus (CECAN). He is a computational social scientist with a background in engineering. His approach to understanding society is to apply the rigour and tools of science and engineering to social scientific issues, using computational methods. He was one of the first to use agent-based models in the social sciences, in the early 1990s, and has since published widely on the methodology underlying computer modelling, and on the application of simulation for applied problems such as understanding commercial innovation, managing environmental resources such as energy and water, and supporting public policy decision-making.

He has contributed to public affairs in a number of roles, including as a Specialist Advisor to the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, as a member of the DECC/DEFRA Social Science Expert Panel, and of the Future and Emerging Technologies Advisory Board of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, and has chaired and been a member of numerous committees for the UK Research Councils. He was a member of a panel for both the 2001 and the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences and of the Royal Society of Arts.