Professor Christos Gatzidis

I am currently the Executive Dean at Bournemouth University’s Faculty of Science and Technology (one of the four Faculties of the University), a role which I have taken up in April 2023, first in an Interim capacity, and from October 2023 onwards in a permanent appointment. The Faculty of Science and Technology consists of six wide-ranging in disciplines Departments, those of Computing and Informatics, Creative Technology, Design and Engineering, Psychology, Life and Environmental Sciences and Archaeology and Anthropology, with various taught undergraduate, postgraduate, foundation year and apprenticeship programmes across all of these Departments, plus, notably, with 4 of the 6 with Athena Swan Bronze awards. The Faculty of Science and Technology led the submission of 5 different Units of Assessment in the last REF for Bournemouth University’s submission, plus attracts research funding from various external funders such as AHRC, NIHR, Innovate UK, the European Union and many others.

Before taking on the Executive Dean role, I was Deputy Dean (from 2021 to 2023) as well as (from 2016 until 2021) the Head of Department in the Creative Technology Department (which covers taught courses and research in the areas of games development and music production, my own personal academic area of expertise is in computer graphics) of, again, the Faculty of Science and Technology at Bournemouth University. I was also appointed as a Professor in Creative Technology in November 2019.

In terms of my own research output, I have in the past published work in key academic journals in my area, such as Springer’s Visual Computer, Elsevier’s Computers and Graphics, Wiley’s Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds, ACM’s Computers in Entertainment and Elsevier’s Entertainment Computing but also in other discipline areas, such as in ACM’s Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage and Springer’s Scientific Reports (amongst others). Conference publications include ones in ACM SIGGRAPH and ACM SIGGRAPH Asia. Moreover, I continue to develop my domestic and international profile in the area of gaming technologies and computer graphics, through additional scientific publications, PhD supervisions and completions, as well as various other activities, which include the multidisciplinary application of these fields in other domains. These activities include being the Principal Investigator for externally funded research projects, with my last funded project being an Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership with an industry partner (which was my second successful Knowledge Transfer Partnership bid as a Principal Investigator), in the area of virtual reality and digital healthcare, focusing, specifically, on the development of an immersive mindfulness prototype.

My vision for the Faculty is to continue to build on all current successes/strengths, guided by the University’s strategic plan, with priorities including student recruitment and experience plus research income generation and research quality. Towards student recruitment, we endeavour to explore the technical and other advancements of our academic disciplines with new and revised taught course provisions plus with diversified and innovative models of delivery, with aspects such as employability and cross-Faculty collaboration firmly in focus. On student experience, the aim is to consistently deliver strong performances in relevance to the sector and on our own terms, in the various metrics typically employed but also in providing excellent conditions and prospects to all of our students, underlined by an emphasis in equality, diversity and inclusion. Finally, on research income generation/research quality, the Faculty is focused on improving on previous REF outcomes, with a strong year-on-year increase on external research, but also knowledge exchange (supporting our civic engagement mission), funding figures attracted, so that growth in research quality is constantly supported in a robust fashion.