Esteemed ELLIS Fellowship for academic co-lead Professor Oliver Lemon
Professor of AI and academic co-lead at The National Robotarium, Oliver Lemon, has been elected as a new Fellow by the esteemed European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS), a pan-European network of AI centres of excellence.
Professor Lemon’s Fellowship was announced in December 2024, alongside 160 other machine learning researchers recognised for their contributions to advancing science and shaping the future of machine learning in Europe. He now joins a prestigious network of outstanding AI scientists, with numerous opportunities for professional exchange, collaborations, workshops and conferences.
Alongside more junior ELLIS Scholars, the ELLIS Fellows participate in cross-national research programmes, which aim to push scientific boundaries connecting top researchers in fields including Human-Centred Machine Learning, Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Collaborative AI.
“Joining the ELLIS Network is a privilege, offering the opportunity to collaborate on significant advances in AI science with leading European researchers.” – Professor Oliver Lemon
As academic lead at The National Robotarium, Professor Lemon directs pioneering AI and Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) research at Heriot-Watt University, developing generative AI models that advance assistive and conversational robotics.
Recent successes led by Professor Lemon include SPRING (Socially Assistive Robots in Gerontological healthcare) – an international study which successfully trialled AI-powered assistive robots in an elder-care hospital in Paris, catapulting his research team into the global spotlight, with features in The Times newspaper and TIME Magazine, when the findings were published in January 2024.
Professor Lemon said: “Joining the ELLIS Network is a privilege, offering the opportunity to collaborate on significant advances in AI science with leading European researchers.
“Recent breakthroughs in AI, particularly the rapid adoption of generative models, are significantly impacting lives and work. While these advances herald an exciting new era, robust research and innovation are crucial for ensuring a human-centered, beneficial, and safe AI future in Europe.
“Joining the ELLIS Network provides a collaborative environment for connection and exchange, and I look forward to working with fellow inductees to advance scientific excellence in modern AI research”
Nicolò Cesa-Bianchi, Chair of ELLIS Fellows & Fellows Selection Committees, said: “ELLIS Fellows & Scholars are the fabric of the ELLIS network, which they shape and grow through their contributions. This new group of outstanding researchers is joining the network after being selected among over 200 exceptional applicants. Together with them, we will continue to work to keep ELLIS at the forefront of research and innovation in AI and Machine Learning.”
