Dimitra Simeonidou OBE, FREng, FIEEE, Royal Society Wolfson Scholar

Dimitra Simeonidou is a Full Professor at the University of Bristol, the Director of Smart Internet Lab and the Founding Director of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. Her research is focusing on the fields of high-performance networks, programmable networks, Future Internet, wireless-optical convergence, 5G/6G and smart city infrastructures. In the past few years, she is increasingly working on cross-disciplinary topics such as climate change and digital transformation for society and businesses. Dimitra has been the Technical Architect, and the CTO of the smart city project Bristol Is Open. She is currently leading the Bristol City/Region 5G and Open RAN pilots.

Dimitra has been a member of the UK Government Supply Chain Diversification Task Force and Advisory Council. She is a founding member of the UK Telecoms Innovation Network and member of the OFCOM Spectrum Advisory Board. In May 2025, she has been appointed Chief Scientific Advisor to the European Commission.

She has led major research projects funded by UK Government and the EC. She is currently coordinating the DSIT REASON project developing  blueprint architectures and technologies for 6G and the EPSRC JOINER project, aiming to establish a UK-wide experimentation platform for 6G research and innovation. 

She is the author and co-author of over 700 publications, numerous patents and several contributions to standards. She has been co-founder of three spin-out companies developing solutions for connected smart infrastructures.

Dimitra is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), a Fellow of the IEEE (FIEEE), Fellow of WWRF and member of UKCRC.