PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Bijan Parsia

Bijan Parsia is a computer scientist whose AI research spans OWL ontology tools, reasoning systems and Semantic Web standards. He worked in Maryland's Mindswap group before joining Manchester's Information Management Group in 2006. With collaborators, he coauthored papers on Swoop, an OWL ontology browser and editor, and Pellet, an OWL-DL reasoner, and contributed to the OWL 2 Primer. His paper on OWL justifications won Best Paper at ISWC in 2008; he completed a philosophy doctorate in 2009 and became a Reader in 2014. He was re-elected to Manchester's Senate in April 2025, coauthored a 2026 study on type 1 diabetes data and smartwatch interfaces, and is Professor of Computer Science at Manchester as of October 2026.

Badges

Timeline

  1. 2005

    Swoop for OWL ontologies

    In 2005, he coauthors a paper describing Swoop, a browser and editor tailored to OWL ontologies, with features for display, navigation, editing and collaborative annotation.

  2. 2006

    Maryland to Manchester

    Before joining Manchester in 2006, he works as a Faculty Research Associate in the University of Maryland's Mindswap group. He joins Manchester's Information Management Group in 2006.

  3. 2007

    The Pellet reasoner

    He coauthors a 2007 paper presenting Pellet, a Java, open-source OWL-DL reasoner that supports reasoning with individuals, ontology debugging and OWL/Rule hybrid reasoning.

  4. 2008

    An ISWC Best Paper

    In 2008, his paper with Matthew Horridge and Uli Sattler, “Laconic and Precise Justifications in OWL,” wins Best Paper at ISWC.

  5. 2009

    A philosophy doctorate

    After graduate training in philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he completes a philosophy doctorate at the University of Maryland College Park in August 2009.

  6. 2012

    The OWL 2 Primer

    He contributes to the OWL 2 Primer with Pascal Hitzler, Markus Krötzsch, Peter F. Patel-Schneider and Sebastian Rudolph. The second edition receives W3C Recommendation status in December 2012.

  7. 2012–2014

    Promotion to Reader

    At Manchester, he is promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2012 and Reader in 2014.

  8. As of October 2026

    Professor at Manchester

    In April 2025, he is re-elected to the University of Manchester Senate for a term from September 2025 to August 2028. In 2026, he coauthors a multimodal dataset study on glucose interpretation, treatment decisions and smartwatch visualisation for type 1 diabetes. As of October 2026, he is Professor of Computer Science at Manchester, in its Information Management group.

Career

  1. Since 2006University of ManchesterProfessor of Computer Science, Senior Lecturer
  2. Until 2006University of MarylandFaculty Research Associate

Education

  1. 2009University of MarylandPhD in philosophy
  2. University of North Carolina at Chapel HillGraduate training in philosophy

From the biography.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes University of Manchester. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes University of Manchester. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Manchester. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.
  4. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes University of Manchester. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.

Colleagues

People named in this biography, and people with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of Bijan Parsia yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. A tool for working with web ontologies research.manchester.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  2. Bijan Parsia at the University of Manchester staff.cs.manchester.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  3. Pellet: A practical OWL-DL reasoner research.manchester.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  4. Prof. Dr. Pascal Hitzler people.cs.ksu.edu. Checked 20 October 2026.
  5. Bijan Parsia research.manchester.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.
  6. Multimodal dataset on glucose interpretation, treatment decisions and smartwatch visualisation for type 1 diabetes nature.com. Checked 20 October 2026.
  7. Senate nominations and election results staffnet.manchester.ac.uk. Checked 20 October 2026.