Queen Mary’s Professor Ursula Martin awarded CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List

Professor Ursula Martin of the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary, University of London, works at the interface of mathematics and computer science, applying abstract mathematical concepts to understand practical problems in software design. 

She was the UK’s first female Professor of Computer Science when, aged 36, she was appointed Professor in the University of London. In 1992, she moved to the University of St Andrews to become their first female Professor - in any faculty - since the foundation of the University in 1413. From 2005-2009 she was Vice-Principal for Science and Engineering at Queen Mary, University of London, where she now leads ImpactQM, a major knowledge transfer initiative. Her numerous national and international roles include membership of the UK’s Defence Scientific Advisory Council, and driving forward national initiatives for women in computing through the British Computer Society.

Professor Martin said it was a great honour to receive the award: “I am delighted,” she said, “that my contribution has been recognised in this way.”

The CBE - one of only 4 such awards ever to have been granted in UK academic computer science - comes just months after Professor Martin was recognised as a woman of outstanding achievement at the UKRC’s Women of Outstanding Achievement Awards 2011 where she was announced runner-up in the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Professor Jeremy Kilburn, Vice Principal for Science and Engineering at Queen Mary congratulated Professor Martin on her CBE.

He said: “Ursula has made an outstanding contribution both to Queen Mary, University of London, and to the field of computer science generally. I would like to congratulate her on behalf of all of us at Queen Mary on this great honour, and acknowledgement of that contribution.”

Principal, Professor Simon Gaskell added: "This is well-deserved recognition for the many exceptional contributions that Ursula has made. She has become an outstanding role model for young computer scientists both within Queen Mary and nationally."

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