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The stories of the pioneering people behind IT

This expanding database contains more than 200 oral histories recorded by the Archives of IT team. They tell the extraordinary story of how the Tech industry has transformed our lives, in the words of the people who made and are making it happen.

You can filter interviews by subject area below or use the Search button at the top of the page. If you know who you are looking for, use our A-Z list here.

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Professor Liz Bacon

Professor of Software Engineering, champion of women in STEM, Vice-Principal and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at Abertay University in Dundee, BSC President: Liz has many accolades to her name including completing an industrial placement at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Geneva, during her sandwich degree in the 1984/85 academic year.

With others she helped change the school curriculum in computing and set-up more than 200 computers at school hubs across the country to train the teachers to deliver it. In 2016 Liz became a Trustee and Director of Bletchley Park Trust, the home of British code breaking.

Sue Black OBE

Professor Sue Black is an award-winning Computer Scientist, Technology Evangelist and Digital Skills Expert, who established #techmums, which runs programs and initiatives designed to support mothers becoming more familiar, confident, and excited about the use of technology in their personal, professional, and parenting lives.

#techmums vision is to reach a million mums and ignite potential in not only mums, but their families, and their communities. #techmums trains women in key areas including: Tech Skills, The Cloud, Digital Safety, and Coding to allow them to enter a new career path and gain confidence regarding returning to employment or setting up their own businesses.

Sue also led a successful campaign to save Bletchley Park in between 2008-11 and wrote a book about the experience.

Sir Michael Brady

Sir Michael Brady is Emeritus Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Oxford, having retired in 2010 as Professor of Information Engineering.  He is co-Director of the Oxford Cancer Imaging Centre.  He is distinguished for his work in artificial intelligence, and for his outstanding contributions to developing computer-based post-processing for a variety of medical images.  He combines his work in oncology with a range of entrepreneurial activities.  He was Deputy Chairman of Oxford Instruments, and also a founder of successful start-ups such as Guidance, Mirada Medical, Optellum, Perspectum Diagnostics, ScreenPoint Medical, and Volpara Solutions among others.  Sir Michael was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineers, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, and Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence, and also he is Membre Étranger de l’Académie des Sciences.  In addition to this numerous academic fellowships and prizes he received a knighthood in 2004 for services to engineering.

Professor Sir Michael Brady

Professor Sir Michael Brady is Emeritus Professor of Oncological Imaging at the University of Oxford, having retired in 2010 as Professor of Information Engineering.  He was co-director of the Oxford Cancer Imaging Centre.  He is distinguished for his work in artificial intelligence, applying his work to a wide range of medical programmes, particularly breast, liver and colorectal cancer.  He combined his work in oncology with a range of entrepreneurial activities including Deputy Chairman of Oxford Instruments, and the founder of successful start-ups such as Guidance, Mirada Medical, Optellum, Perspectum, ScreenPoint Medical, and Volpara Solutions among others.

Professor Alan Bundy CBE

Professor Alan Richard Bundy, CBE, FRSE, FRS, FREng, FACM is Professor of Automated Reasoning in the School of Informatics at Edinburgh University.  Throughout his long and illustrious career he has worked mostly as a researcher in artificial intelligence, mathematical reasoning and representations of knowledge.  Alan helped set up the UK Computing Research Committee and has been the Vice-President of the British Computer Society, among many other contributions to important bodies.

Muffy Calder OBE

Muffy Calder is Vice Principal and Head of College of Science and Engineering at Glasgow University.  She is also a Professor of Formal Methods.  She is a member of the governing body of EPSRC, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research.  She is Chair of the DCMS Science Advisory Committee and a member of REF Main Panel B.She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the British Computer Society and, in 2011, she was awarded the OBE for services to computer science.

Professor Edwin Candy

Professor Edwin Candy cut his teeth helping build command and control radio systems in his native Australia.  He worked for the Australian subsidiary of Pye, the Cambridge UK-based electronics company.  He spent a year seconded to Digital Equipment Corporation in the USA where he learned about computer architectures.   By the 1980s he was a business manager at Philips which had taken over Pye.  He moved to the UK in 1987 and conceived and created the Universal Mobile Telephone System 3G specification with 25 partners.  This standard was the basis for 3G mobile communications incorporating Internet services.