Professor Jane Hillston MBE FRS

Jane Hillston is computer scientist who combines formal languages and mathematical models to study the behaviour of dynamic systems.  Her original work focused on performance analysis of computer and communication systems, seeking to predict their use of resources and responsiveness to users.  Her initial work on this topic, in her PhD dissertation, was awarded the BCS/CPHC Distinguished Dissertation Award in 1995.  A key focus of her work is support for probabilistic and quantitative verification techniques, and her work on efficient analysis techniques led to the Needham Award in 2005.


Over the years the modelling languages that she designs have been adopted and adapted to a number of application domains ranging from adaptive transport systems to biochemical processes within cells.  She has also worked on developing formal approaches to fluid approximations of discrete models and formal languages for machine learning.


Jane is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Member of Academia Europaea.  She has been a strong advocate for Women in Computing and her work was recognised by a Suffrage Science Award in 2018.

Professional position

  • Professor and Head of School, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Subject groups

  • Computer Sciences

    Programming languages and verification

Committees Participated Role
Sectional Committee 0: Computer sciences October 2024 - September 2026 Chair
Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships Selection Committee January 2024 - December 2026 Member
Geographical Diversity Search Panel May 2023 - December 2025 Member
Publishing Board January 2023 - December 2026 Ex-Officio
Sectional Committee 0: Computer sciences October 2022 - September 2024 Member
Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships Selection Committee January 2014 - December 2019 Member