Shadbolt was born in London but adopted and raised in the Derbyshire village of Ashford-in-the-Water, living a "bucolic existence" until he went to university.[15] He went to Lady Manners School, then a state-funded grammar school. He obtained an undergraduate degree in philosophy and psychology from Newcastle University, then received his Ph.D. from the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh.[4] His thesis resulted in a framework for understanding how human dialogue is organised and was supervised by Barry Richards and Henry S. Thompson.[4]
From 2000 to 2007, he led and directed the Advanced Knowledge Technologies (AKT) Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC).[25] It produced a broad range of Semantic Web research, including how diverse information could be harvested and integrated[26] and how semantics could help computers systems recommend content.
His Semantic Web research led to the formation of Garlik,[29] offering identity protection services. In 2008, Garlik was awarded Technology Pioneer status by the Davos World Economic Forum and won the UK BT Flagship IT Award. Experian acquired Garlik in November 2011.[30]
In June 2009 he was appointed together with Tim Berners-Lee as Information Advisor to the UK Government. The two led a team to develop data.gov.uk, a single point of access for UK non-personal Governmental public data.[31][32] In May 2010 he was appointed by the UK Coalition Government to the Public Sector Transparency Board responsible for setting open data standards across the public sector and developing the legal Right to Data.
In December 2012, Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee formally launched the Open Data Institute. The ODI focuses on incubating and nurturing new businesses wanting to harness open data, training and promoting standards. In 2013, Shadbolt and Tim Berners-Lee joined the board of advisors of tech startup State.com, creating a network of structured opinions on the semantic web.[33] On 1 August 2015 he was appointed principal of Jesus College, Oxford and a professorial research fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford.
2010–2015: Chair of Local Public Data Panel, Deptartment of Communities and Local Government.
2011–2014: Chair of UK Midata programme,[35] BIS,[36] appointed by the Minister of State. The Midata programme was an element of the consumer empowerment strategy put in place by the 2010-2015 coalition government.[37]
2012–2016: UK Health Sector Transparency Board, DHS.[38]
2013–2015: UK Research Sector Transparency Board,[39] appointed by Minister of State
2013–2015: UK Information Economy Council, BIS, appointed by Minister of State[40]
2015–2016: Chair, Shadbolt Review of Computer Science Employability[41]
2015–2016: UK French Data Task Force, appointed by Chancellor of Exchequer[42]
2015–present: Member, HMG Digital Advisory Board. Appointed by Minister of State[43]
Awards and honours
2003 (2003): Won the 2003 International Semantic Web Challenge[44]
2004 (2004): IEEE Computer Society Meritorious Service Award[45]
2004 (2004): IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Award[46]
2009 (2009): Robert Fulton SEIKM Best Paper Award[47]
2010 (2010): Demographics User Group Award with Tim Berners-Lee[48]
2011 (2011): Oxford Internet Institute OII Internet and Society Award
2011 (2011): DSc Honoris Causi, University of Nottingham[49]
^Tennison, J.; O'Hara, K.; Shadbolt, N. (2002). "APECKS: Using and evaluating a tool for ontology construction with internal and external KA support". International Journal of Human-Computer Studies. 56 (4): 375–422. doi:10.1006/ijhc.2002.1000.
^Sycara, Katia; Mylopoulis, John (2004). "Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web". Web Semantics: Science, Services and Agents on the World Wide Web. 1 (4): 323–324. doi:10.1016/s1570-8268(04)00020-4.