PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alex Lascarides

Also known as Alexandra Lascarides

Alex Lascarides is a computational linguist whose work applies formal semantics to conversation and to AI systems. She studied mathematics at Durham, then cognitive science at Edinburgh, and completed a PhD thesis on the progressive in 1988. With Nicholas Asher, she published Logics of conversation in 2003, a book that presents Segmented Discourse Representation Theory. In March 2023 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 2023 she co-wrote a workshop paper in which large language models map English utterances into domain-specific code. She is professor emerita at the University of Edinburgh, having retired in 2025.

Timeline

  1. 1984–1985

    Mathematics, then cognitive science

    She graduates in mathematics from Durham in 1984, then earns a master's degree in cognitive science at Edinburgh in 1985.

  2. 1988

    A thesis on the progressive

    At Edinburgh she completes a PhD in 1988 with a thesis titled Formal semantic analysis of the progressive.

  3. 2003

    Logics of conversation

    With Nicholas Asher, she publishes Logics of conversation in 2003, a book that presents Segmented Discourse Representation Theory.

  4. March 2023

    A Royal Society of Edinburgh fellowship

    The Royal Society of Edinburgh elects her to its Fellowship in March 2023, alongside Ross Anderson and Fiona McNeill.

  5. 2023

    Language models for simulation code

    In 2023 she co-writes a workshop paper in which large language models map English utterances into domain-specific code.

  6. Since 2025

    Professor emerita at Edinburgh

    She is professor emerita at the University of Edinburgh, where she moved from postdoctoral fellow to professor before retiring in 2025.

Sources and credits

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  1. Alex Lascarides homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Alex Lascarides - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. LINGUIST List 14.2133: Disc Analysis/Cogn Science: Asher, Lascarides linguistlist.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Three Informatics academics elected as RSE fellows | School of Informatics | School of Informatics informatics.ed.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. Alex Lascarides - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Dialogue-based generation of self-driving simulation scenarios using Large Language Models - ACL Anthology aclanthology.org. Checked 14 October 2026.