Paul Dourish Elected Royal Society of Edinburgh Fellow

Paul Dourish, Chancellor’s Professor and Steckler Endowed Chair in Information and Computer Sciences at UC Irvine, has been elected an International Fellow (IntFRSE) of the Royal Society of Edinburgh April 7, 2026.

Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland’s National Academy, are elected “in recognition of excellence in their disciplines, and an ongoing commitment to advancing knowledge for the benefit of society as a whole.”

Notable fellows include Adam Smith, Lord Kelvin, Peter Higgs,and Benjamin Franklin. “There’s a daunting list of names amongst prior fellows, including James Clerk Maxwell and James Watt, as well as some of my own teachers like Robin Milner and Alan Bundy,” says Dourish.

Dourish is the director of UC Irvine’s Steckler Center for Responsible, Ethical, and Accessible Technology (CREATE). His recent scholarship explores algorithmic culture, the materiality of information, and postcolonial computing, as well as the socio-political dimensions of how technology is designed and used.

“Although the majority of my professional career has been spent outside Scotland, and mostly here in Irvine, it has been grounded in my time in Computer Science and in Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh,” says Dourish. “There is a notable presence of researchers in human-computer interaction and social informatics in Scotland, and I’ve been able to spend time at many of the centers there.”

“My family is still largely in Scotland,” he adds. “And it’s very meaningful to have this connection back to where I grew up and the journey began. I guess I’m going to need a new kilt.”