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Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist)

British computer scientist

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ33125489 ↗
Source-derived summary

Michael John Wooldridge (born 26 August 1966) is a professor of computer science at the University of Oxford. His main research interests are in multi-agent systems, and in particular, in the computational theory aspects of rational action in systems composed of multiple self-interested agents. His work is characterised by the use of techniques from computational logic, game theory, and social choice theory.

Education

Wooldridge was educated at Wolverhampton Polytechnic where he gained a BSc in 1989 and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) where he was awarded a PhD in 1991 for research supervised by Gregory O'Hare.

Career and research

Wooldridge was appointed a lecturer in Computer Science at the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1992. In 1996, he moved to London, where he became senior lecturer at Queen Mary and Westfield College in 1998. His appointment as full professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Liverpool followed in 1999. In Liverpool he served as head of department from 2001 to 2005 and as head of the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics, and Computer Science from 2008 to 2011. In 2012 the European Research Council awarded him a five-year ERC Advanced Grant for the project Reasoning about Computational Economies (RACE). In the same year he left Liverpool to become professor of computer science at the University of Oxford, and served as head of the Department of Computer Science from 2014 - 2018.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist)” as british computer scientist. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1966, 1989, 1991, 1992—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1966-08-26. The account is most persuasive where Michael, Wooldridge and computer can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as british computer scientist. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q33125489. VIAF identifies the subject as 45358862. The Library of Congress control number is n94119595. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1989, 1991 and 1992.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist) primary sources, Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist) archive and Michael research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist)”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Michael Wooldridge (computer scientist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.