Biography
Professor Alison Noble CBE FRS FREng read Engineering Science at the University of Oxford (St Hugh’s College, 1983-86, First Class Honours) and graduated with a DPhil in Engineering Science (Computer Vision, St Hugh’s College) in 1989. She then moved to the USA to work as a Research Scientist at the GE Corporate R&D Center in Niskayuna, NY, USA. Professor Noble returned to Oxford in 1995 to set up a biomedical image analysis group and subsequently held academic posts at St Hugh’s and Oriel College (University Lecturer) and Wolfson (ULNTF). She became a titular Professor in 2002 and took up the Technikos Professorship (Chair) in Biomedical Engineering associated with St Hilda’s in 2011.
Professor Noble works in the field of healthcare artificial intelligence (AI). She leads a medical image analysis group best known internationally for learning-based ultrasound image analysis and has received several international awards including the Royal Society Gabor Medal, the Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Interventions (MICCAI) Society Enduring Impact award, and the IFMBE Laura Bassi Award. She has commercialised some of her group’s research via a spinout company which is now used in clinics worldwide.
At Oxford, Professor Noble has played a leadership role in setting up educational postgraduate research training (CDT) programmes at Oxford (initially the LSI DTC and she was founding Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Healthcare Innovation). She is a former Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (2012-16) and served as a MPLS Division Associate Head (Innovation and Industry Partnerships) from 2016-19.
Professor Noble is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering, the IET, the ELLIS Society, and the MICCAI Society (the international society in her field of which she has also served as society President). She has played a very active role in supporting UK science and engineering on national committees, advisories and as a trustee (currently of the Royal Society and HDR UK), and is a Vice President and Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society from 2023-26.
Professor Noble received an OBE in 2013 and was awarded her CBE for services to engineering and biomedical imaging in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours List.
Publications are listed on Professor Noble’s personal website.
Positions
- Professorial Fellow in Engineering
- Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Subjects
- Engineering
