John McDermid became Professor of Software Engineering at the University of York in 1987 and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation Chair of Safety in January 2024.

His research interests include systems, software, and safety engineering. He is Director of the Lloyd’s Register Foundation funded Centre for Assuring Autonomy (CfAA) which focuses on the safety of robotics and autonomous systems.

The CfAA is developing assurance frameworks for autonomous systems and machine learning, either used as part of an autonomous system or stand-alone. These frameworks are being used across a range of sectors including healthcare and major transport modalities including aerospace, automotive, and maritime.

He has advised government and industry on assurance and regulation of AI and autonomous systems, including contributing to the documents supporting the AI Summits in the UK, Korea and France.

He became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2002 and was awarded an OBE in 2010.