PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Ian Horrocks

Ian Horrocks is Professor of Computer Science at Oxford, where his AI work covers knowledge representation and automated reasoning. Research on tableau methods produced FaCT, and he contributed to the W3C's OWL ontology language. After moving from Manchester to Oxford, he led research on ontology languages and reasoning systems for biomedical applications. In 2017, he co-founded Oxford Semantic Technologies; Samsung acquired the company in 2024 and planned to combine its RDFox knowledge graph and reasoning software with Samsung AI. His honours include the BCS Roger Needham Award, election to the Royal Society, and a EurAI Fellowship.

Works
525
Citations
34,750
h-index
84

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.

Photo of Ian Horrocks

Timeline

  1. 1969–1997

    From school to research

    His education includes Formby High School in Merseyside and computer science at Manchester, where he earns a first-class BSc, an MSc by research, and a PhD. His first jobs include research work at Manchester and technical direction at Scientex.

  2. 1997–2003

    Developing FaCT

    After a visiting scientist post in Trento, he returns to Manchester as a research associate. His work on optimising tableaux subsumption algorithms produces FaCT.

  3. 2001–2007

    Research and industry roles

    From 2001 to 2006, he serves as chief scientist at Cerebra. He is Professor of Computer Science at Manchester from 2003 to 2007.

  4. 2005

    A computer science award

    In 2005, he receives the British Computer Society Roger Needham Award.

  5. 2007

    Building an Oxford group

    He becomes Professor of Computer Science at Oxford and Fellow of Oriel. At Oxford, he leads a group that develops logic-based ontology languages and reasoning systems for applications such as biomedical ontologies and patient records.

  6. 2011

    Designing OWL

    He is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011. His work includes the design of the W3C's OWL ontology language standard and algorithms for OWL reasoning systems.

  7. 2017–2024

    Bringing RDFox to industry

    With Boris Motik and Bernardo Cuenca Grau, he co-founds Oxford Semantic Technologies in 2017. Samsung acquires the company in 2024. Its RDFox knowledge graph and reasoning software is set to be combined with Samsung's AI technology.

  8. As of October 2026

    Working in symbolic AI

    He is Professor of Computer Science at Oxford and a EurAI Fellow. His research covers knowledge representation, ontologies, description logics, and automated reasoning.

Sources and credits

Photo: Rama, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: commons.wikimedia.org. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.

  1. Academy of Europe: CV www2.ae-info.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  2. Academy of Europe: Horrocks Ian www2.ae-info.org. Checked 14 October 2026.
  3. Ian Horrocks: software cs.man.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  4. Ian Horrocks - Oriel College oriel.ox.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  5. New Royal Society Fellow elected cs.ox.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  6. Oxford Semantic Technologies – an Oxford University spinout specialising in knowledge graph and reasoning technology – acquired by Samsung Electronics innovation.ox.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  7. Ian Horrocks | Department of Computer Science cs.ox.ac.uk. Checked 14 October 2026.
  8. Awards | European Association for Artificial Intelligence eurai.org. Checked 14 October 2026.