Prof Jon Timmis is Deputy Vice-Chancellor, with the commercial portfolio, at the University of Sunderland. He is executive lead for academic and service planning, research and knowledge exchange, income generation, London and Hong Kong branch campuses, strategic development, student recruitment, international activity (including Transnational Education), Sunderland Online (distance learning portfolio), regional development, and equality, diversity and inclusion.

Jon is Professor of Intelligent and Adaptive Systems and studied Computer Science as a mature student at Aberystwyth University, staying on to study for a PhD in the area of artificial intelligence. In 2000 Jon moved to the University of Kent, becoming Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing. In 2005 he joined York, initially as Reader between the Computer Science and Electronic Engineering departments, the Professor in 2008. He served as Head of Department from 2015 – 2017, and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Partnerships and Knowledge Exchange from 2017 to 2019, when he moved to Sunderland.

Jon is a previous recipient of a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award and a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellowship. He has published around 300 papers, raised over £30million in research funding and supervised, to completion, 50 PhD students.