Genevieve Bell facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Genevieve Bell
AO FTSE FAHA FASSA
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Genevieve Bell in 2017
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| 13th Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University | |
| Assumed office 1 January 2024 |
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| Chancellor | Julie Bishop |
| Preceded by | Brian Schmidt |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1967 Australia |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College Stanford University |
| Occupation | Cultural Anthropologist Distinguished Professor |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Telling stories out of school: Remembering the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, 1879-1918 (1998) |
| Doctoral advisors | Arthur Wolf Hill Gates |
Genevieve Bell is an Australian cultural anthropologist and a leader in technology. She is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). She is well-known for her work on how people use technology in their daily lives. She also helped create the field of "user experience," which focuses on making technology easy and enjoyable to use.
Genevieve Bell was the first director of the Autonomy, Agency and Assurance Innovation Institute (3Ai). This institute was started by the ANU and CSIRO’s Data61. She also holds the university's Florence Violet McKenzie Chair. This special position honors Australia's first female electrical engineer. She has written many articles and holds 13 patents for her inventions.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Genevieve Bell was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1967. Her mother, Diane Bell, was also a famous anthropologist. As a child, Genevieve lived in different cities like Melbourne and Canberra. She also spent time in several Aboriginal Communities in the Northern Territory.
In 1990, she earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Philosophy degrees in anthropology from Bryn Mawr College. She then continued her studies at Stanford University. There, she received her master's degree and PhD in anthropology in 1998. Her PhD research looked at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.
Career Highlights
From 1996 to 1998, Genevieve Bell taught anthropology and Native American Studies at Stanford University.
Working at Intel
In 1998, Bell joined the Intel Corporation, a big technology company. She worked as a cultural anthropologist. Her job was to study how people from different cultures around the world used technology. She helped Intel understand that technology should be designed with people's experiences in mind. She is known for making "user experience" an important part of Intel's work.
In 2005, Bell started Intel's first User Experience Group. This group focused on how people interacted with digital devices at home. In 2008, Intel recognized her important work by naming her an Intel Fellow. This is the highest technical rank at the company. She became a vice president at Intel in 2014 and a senior fellow in 2016.
Recognitions and Awards
Genevieve Bell has received many honors outside of Intel. In 2010, she was named one of the Top 25 Women in Technology to Watch. She was also listed as one of the 100 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company.
In 2012, she was added to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame. The next year, she was named Anita Borg’s Woman of Vision in Leadership. In 2014, Elle Magazine included her in their first list of influential women in technology. She was also featured in an exhibit at London's Design Museum.
Return to Australia
After 18 years at Intel, Bell returned to Australia in 2017. She became a distinguished professor at the ANU College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics. She was also the first person to hold the Florence Violet McKenzie Chair at the ANU.
In 2017, the ANU announced a big plan to grow its engineering and computer science programs. Genevieve Bell led part of this expansion. She became the director of the new 3A Institute (3Ai). This institute brings together experts from many fields. They work on complex problems related to artificial intelligence (AI), data, and technology. They also study how these technologies affect people.
Her knowledge in AI development and rules has been recognized by the government and industry. In 2018, she was elected as a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE). She also joined the National Science and Technology Advisory Council. In 2023, she was the main author of a report on Generative AI for the Minister for Industry and Science.
In January 2019, Bell joined the board of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Leadership at ANU
On January 22, 2020, Bell was named the first Engelbart Distinguished Fellow by SRI International. This fellowship honors people who change how we interact with technology. Soon after, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2020. This award recognized her great service to education and cultural anthropology. That same year, she became an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
In 2021, Bell started the new School of Cybernetics at the ANU. She was its first Director. This school focuses on creating safe and responsible futures that consider people, the environment, and technology.
On September 26, 2023, Genevieve Bell was announced as the 13th Vice-Chancellor and President of the Australian National University. She started this important role on January 1, 2024.
Notable Talks and Works
Genevieve Bell is a well-known speaker on technology, cybernetics, and artificial intelligence. She has given many TED talks. These include "6 Big Ethical Questions About the Future of AI" and "The Value of Boredom."
In October 2017, she gave the ABC's 2017 Boyer Lectures. In these talks, she explored what it means to be human and Australian in a digital world. She joined a list of important Australians chosen each year to give these lectures.
In 2021, Bell delivered the IPAA's Garran Oration. This is a very important speech for the Australian public sector. Her talk highlighted how cybernetics can help us imagine and build the future.
Bell also gave the first Ann Moyal Lecture in 2023 at the National Library of Australia. This lecture explores topics that combine different areas of knowledge. Bell's lecture looked at Australia's Australian Overland Telegraph Line through a cybernetic lens.
Besides her talks, Bell has written many articles and books. Her first book, Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing, was published in 2011. It explores the social and cultural sides of ubiquitous computing.
She also contributed to the 2015 book Data: Now Bigger and Better! with her chapter “The Secret Life of Big Data.” In 2021, she wrote “Touching the Future” for the Griffith Review. This piece introduced cybernetics to a wider audience. She also published “Talking to AI: An anthropological encounter with artificial intelligence” in The SAGE Handbook of Cultural Anthropology.
In 2022, she wrote “The metaverse is a new word for an old idea” for the MIT Technology Review. In this article, she discussed the history of the metaverse and how it can help us build new technologies today.
Awards and Fellowships
Genevieve Bell has received many awards and fellowships for her work:
- 2024: Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia
- 2024: Inaugural Margaret Mead Prize in cybernetics
- 2021, 2023: The Australian Top 100 Innovator
- 2021: Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)
- 2020: Inaugural SRI International Engelbart Distinguished Fellow
- 2020: Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (FTSE)
- 2020: Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
- 2017: Inaugural Florence Violet McKenzie Chair
- 2016: Overall Winner and Innovation Awardee of the Advance Global Australian Awards
- 2014: Elle Magazine Influential Woman in Tech
- 2013: Anita Borg Foundation Woman of Vision
- 2013: Fast Company 25 Smartest Women on Twitter
- 2012: Women in Technology Hall of Fame Inductee
- 2010: Fast Company Influential Woman in Technology
- 2009: Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business
