Staff Profile | School of Computing
John Fitzgerald is a full professor in Computing (40%) and serves as Dean of Strategic Projects in Science, Agriculture and Engineering (60%).
John is a specialist in rigorous model-based techniques for engineering cyber-physical systems and systems-of-systems. He studied formal proof in Computing (PhD, Manchester Univ.), before joining Newcastle University, where he worked on design techniques for avionic systems with British Aerospace in the 1990s. He went on to study the potential for industrial application of formal modelling as a SERC Fellow and later as a Lecturer at Newcastle. He established the design and validation team at Transitive, a successful SME in the embedded processor market, before returning to the University in 2003 as Reader and then Professor.
John was the School's academic lead on the design of the Urban Sciences Building - the first major university building at Newcastle Helix and the home for our research and teaching in computing since autumn 2017. Prior to that, he had served as the School's Director of Research (to 2015) and Deputy Head (to 2017) and at the same time as the move to the new building became Head of the School until 2022, when he moved to become Dean responsible for strategic projects across the Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering. His role encompasses large-scale and cross-faculty projects in Natural and Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, and Newcastle University Singapore, as well as Computing.
John has several other roles, including service as a member of the faculty promotions committee and chair of the university's Technology Portfolio Board, responsible for the governance of IT projects. As one of the University's team of Public Orators has the happy job of presenting individuals for recognition with honorary degrees and fellowships.
John is a Fellow of the BCS, a member of the UK Computing Research Committee (UKCRC), EPSRC College, the ACM, IEEE and INCOSE. He is a member of the boards of Dynamo North East and the International Centre for Connected Construction (IC3), and is Chair of the board of the INTO-CPS Association. He served for over a decade as Chair of FME, the main European body bringing together researchers and practitioners in rigorous methods of systems development.
