Alex Healing

Journal Editorial Board / Network Platform & Security Research Director (Acting) BT Research & Network Strategy

Alex is Acting Director for Network Platform & Security Research at BT. He leads a team of researchers who are pushing the boundaries of what the network of the future will be capable of and thus how BT can differentiate itself in a highly competitive environment. This includes next generation capabilities for how service can be customised and assured, and how the operation of the network is as efficient and secure as possible through agile automation. Research topics cover a broad range of skills, such as automated network design, resource optimisation, data science, cyber security, and cryptography.

During 18 years at BT Group, Alex has been driven by applying AI and associated technology to solve real-world business problems. He has led defence-funded collaborative projects, built solutions to help minimise environment impact of business activities, and led teams in visual analytics and cybersecurity research. The latter included fusing novel machine learning methods with interactive visualisation that security analysts used to better discover emerging threats, as well as how AI can be trained to discover new strategies for automatically responding to cyber attacks.

Alex has a degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh and is a member of the BCS and ITP. He was awarded the title ‘Young IT Professional of the Year’ at the UK IT Industry Awards in 2012 and has numerous publications and inventions.