PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Nick Hawes

Nick Hawes is a professor of AI and robotics whose research applies AI techniques to autonomous robots that work with or for people. He earned AI degrees at Birmingham, led an AI-and-robotics group there, and joined Oxford Robotics Institute in 2017. He coordinated the EU STRANDS project on long-term autonomy and became ORI director in 2022. His 2026 papers addressed online reasoning in stochastic environments and distributional reinforcement learning. He is Professor of AI and Robotics at Oxford and Chief Scientist and co-founder of Stateful Robotics.

Now at
Stateful Robotics, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Pembroke College
Badges

Timeline

  1. 1999–2004

    AI degrees at Birmingham

    He earns a BSc in 1999 and a PhD in Artificial Intelligence in 2004 at the University of Birmingham.

  2. 2009

    Robotics research at Birmingham

    After his Birmingham degrees, he holds postdoctoral positions at MIT's Media Lab Europe in Dublin and in Birmingham's School of Computer Science. From 2009, he leads a research group applying AI to robotics at Birmingham and progresses to Reader in Autonomous Intelligent Robotics.

  3. 2013

    Lord Kelvin Award Lecture

    He is selected for the Lord Kelvin Award Lecture at the 2013 British Science Festival, an honour for researchers who demonstrate communication skills to a general audience.

  4. 2013–2017

    Coordinating STRANDS

    From 2013 to 2017, he coordinates the EU STRANDS project on long-term autonomy for mobile service robots in everyday environments. In 2016, he coauthors a STRANDS paper reporting four deployments with a combined 104 days of autonomous robot operation.

  5. September 2017

    Joining Oxford Robotics Institute

    He joins the Oxford Robotics Institute as an Associate Professor and Pembroke College as a Tutorial Fellow in September 2017.

  6. 2022

    Director of Oxford Robotics Institute

    He becomes Director of the Oxford Robotics Institute in 2022.

  7. 2026

    Think Fast!

    At AAMAS 2026, he coauthors Think Fast! Learning to Control Online Reasoning in Stochastic Environments with Matthew Budd and Bruno Lacerda.

  8. 2026

    FlowIQN for distributional learning

    In 2026, he coauthors Quantile-Coupled Flow Matching for Distributional Reinforcement Learning, which introduces FlowIQN by sorting source and Bellman target samples into quantile-aligned flow paths.

  9. As of October 2026

    Oxford, Stateful, and DSIT roles

    As of October 2026, he is Professor of AI and Robotics, Principal Investigator of GOALS, Director of ORI, and a Tutorial Fellow at Pembroke College. He is Chief Scientist and co-founder of Stateful Robotics. In March 2026, he joins the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's Robotics Advisory Group; his research applies AI techniques to autonomous robots that work with or for people.

Career

  1. Since 2026Department for Science, Innovation and TechnologyMember, Robotics Advisory Group
  2. Since 2022University of OxfordDirector, Oxford Robotics Institute, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics
  3. Since 2017Pembroke CollegeTutorial Fellow in Engineering Science
  4. NowStateful RoboticsChief Scientist, Co-founder
  5. From 2009University of BirminghamPostdoctoral Researcher, Research group leader in AI and robotics
  6. Media Lab EuropePostdoctoral Researcher

Education

  1. 2004University of BirminghamPhD in Artificial Intelligence
  2. 1999University of BirminghamBSc in Artificial Intelligence

From the biography.

Checked career sources: eng.ox.ac.uk, news.mit.edu, robots.ox.ac.uk, gov.uk, ori.ox.ac.uk, ori.ox.ac.uk.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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

  1. Nick Hawes - People - Engineering Science Department eng.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  2. Nick Hawes - AI for Good aiforgood.itu.int. Checked 27 October 2026.
  3. The STRANDS Project: Long-Term Autonomy in Everyday Environments arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  4. Research Track | AAMAS cyprusconferences.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  5. [2605.08515] Quantile-Coupled Flow Matching for Distributional Reinforcement Learning arxiv.org. Checked 27 October 2026.
  6. Oxford Robotics Institute | People - Nick Hawes ori.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  7. Stateful Robotics - Decision intelligence for mobile robots in the real world. statefulrobotics.com. Checked 27 October 2026.
  8. Professor Nick Hawes appointed to new government Robotics Advisory Group ori.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.
  9. Overview · Nick Hawes robots.ox.ac.uk. Checked 27 October 2026.