Hugh Francis Durrant-Whyte (born 6 February 1961) is a British-Australian engineer and academic. He is known for his pioneering work on probabilistic methods for robotics. The algorithms developed in his group since the early 1990s permit autonomous vehicles to deal with uncertainty and to localize themselves despite noisy sensor readings using

simultaneous localization and mapping Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) is the computational problem of constructing or updating a map of an unknown environment while simultaneously keeping track of an agent's location within it. While this initially appears to be a chi ...

(SLAM).

Early life and education

Durrant-Whyte was born on 6 February 1961 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. He was educated at

Richard Hale School Richard Hale School is a boys' secondary school located in Hertford in the south east of England. In the 2014–2015 academic year, the school had over 1,000 pupils including students attending the optional sixth form, which is also open to gir ...

, then a

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

in Hertford, Hertfordshire. He studied engineering at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, graduating with a first class

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(BSc) degree in 1983. He then moved to the United States where he studied

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering util ...

at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

: he graduated with a

Master of Science in Engineering A Master of Science in Engineering (abbreviated MSE, M.Sc.Eng. or MScEng) is a type of Master of Science awarded by universities in many countries. It is an academic degree to be differentiated from a Master of Engineering. A Master of Science in ...

(MSE) degree in 1985 and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(PhD) degree in 1986. He was a Thouron Scholar in 1983.

Career and research

From 1986 to 1987, Durrant-Whyte was a BP

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

in the Department of Engineering Science,

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

, and a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of St Cross College, Oxford. Then, from 1987 to 1995, he was a Fellow of

Oriel College, Oxford Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, wh ...

, and a

university lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct res ...

engineering science Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...

. In 1995, he accepted a chair at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

Mechatronic Engineering Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics ...

. He was also director of the Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) from 1999 to 2002. From 2002 until 2010 he held the position of Research Director of the

Australian Research Council The Australian Research Council (ARC) is the primary non-medical research funding agency of the Australian Government, distributing more than in grants each year. The Council was established by the ''Australian Research Council Act 2001'', ...

Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems (CAS), a joint venture between the ACFR and mechatronics groups at the University of Technology, Sydney and the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

. He was elected as a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 2010. Hugh has published more than 350 research papers, graduated more than 70 PhD students, and won numerous awards and prizes for his work. He played a critical role in raising the visibility of Australian robotics internationally and was named "Professional Engineer of the year" (2008) by the Institute of Engineers Australia Sydney Division and NSW "Scientist of the Year" (2010). Durrant-Whyte is one of the early pioneers of

SLAM Slam, SLAM or SLAMS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional elements * S.L.A.M. (Strategic Long-Range Artillery Machine), a fictional weapon in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe * SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield), a fictional anti-ball ...

with John J. Leonard. Durrant-Whyte became the CEO of

NICTA NICTA (formerly named National ICT Australia Ltd) was Australia's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Research Centre of Excellence and is now known as CSIRO's Data61. The term "Centre of Excellence" is common marketing terminology u ...

on 13 December 2010. He resigned as NICTA CEO on 28 November 2014 citing differences with the Board over future funding arrangements. He was appointed as the Chief Scientific Adviser at the UK Ministry of Defence on 27 February 2017. As a dual citizen with Australian and British citizenship, Durrant-Whyte was barred from overseeing the UK's nuclear weapons programme. In May 2018 Durrant-Whyte was appointed NSW Chief Scientist & Engineer by

Gladys Berejiklian Gladys Berejiklian (born 22 September 1970) is an Australian former politician who served as the 45th premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021. Berejiklian became a member ...

, NSW Premier. He took up his appointment on 3 September 2018.

Honours and awards

His awards include *FRS -

*FAA -

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of about 500 Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the Academy ...

*FIEEE - Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers *FTSE - Fellow of the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering *HonFIEAus - Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Engineers Australia *

M A Sargent Medal The M. A. Sargent Medal is awarded by Engineers Australia for longstanding eminence in science or the practice of electrical engineering. It is named in honour of Michael Anthony (Mike) Sargent, an outstanding Australian electrical engineer. The med ...

(2017) *NSW Scientist of the Year (2010) *IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Award (2009) *ATSE Clunies Ross Award (2009) *Professional Engineer of the year (2008) Institute of Engineers Australia, Sydney *IFR/IEEE Invention and Entrepreneurship Award (2007) *New South Wales Pearcy Award (2004) *Harry Lees Award (2004) Institute of Marine Engineers *Warren Centre Innovation Hero (2003) *BAE Systems Chairman's Gold Award (2003) *Four IEEE Best Paper prizes (IROS 1994 and 2006, Data Fusion1997, Robotics 2004)

Offices held

References

External links

Personal page at ACFR (outdated)ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous SystemsChief Executive Officer - People webpage at NICTA Biography on Royal Society Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Durrant-Whyte, Hugh F. Australian roboticists Living people Fellows of the Royal Society Australian Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science Chief Scientific Advisers to the Ministry of Defence 1961 births Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering Engineers from London Alumni of the University of London University of Pennsylvania alumni Fellows of St Cross College, Oxford Fellows of Oriel College, Oxford Academic staff of the University of Sydney Recipients of the M. A. Sargent Medal