Who receives the award?

Established in 1998, the Lovelace Medal is awarded for outstanding contribution to the understanding and advancement of computing.

Previous winners include worldwide web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Linux creator Linus Torvalds, and information retrieval pioneer Karen Spärck Jones.

Read about the review of BCS Awards

2021 Lovelace Lecture

The 2021 lecture took place virtually on Tuesday 12 October. The speakers were all winners of the BCS 2020 Lovelace medal:

  • Ian Horrocks - Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford
  • Nicholas Jennings - Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Vice-Provost for Research and Enterprise, Imperial College London
  • Michael Wooldridge - Head of Department and Professor of Computer Science, University of Oxford, and Programme Director for AI at The Alan Turing Institute

Watch the 2021 lecture

Nominate for next year's award

Do you know someone who's advanced the field of computing?

Check out the criteria and how to nominate

About Ada Lovelace

Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852) was the daughter of the poet, Lord Byron, and an accomplished mathematician, scientist and writer.

Today she’s chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine.

Ada was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation and created the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she’s regarded by many as the first computer programmer.