Wendy Hall
The Life Scientific
BBC
4.6 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2013
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, has spent a career at the forefront of developments around the web and digital media. Trained as a mathematician, she moved to the fledgling department of computer science in the mid 1980's, a time of great change and great excitement in the field.
She talks to Jim Al Khalili about the rate that things have changed, how the web is still not quite what it should be, and about the new discipline she has helped to found known as Web Science.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
| 0:23.0 | Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Thank you for downloading The Life Scientific from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:34.0 | Today's guest is one of the world's leading computer scientists, |
| 0:38.0 | though when she was a student, Wendy Hall says she loathed computers. |
| 0:42.0 | But after a Damascene conversion... Wendy Hall says she loathed computers. |
| 0:43.0 | But after a Damascene conversion, |
| 0:45.2 | she found herself in the ground floor of the World Wide Web |
| 0:49.4 | and has since been a long time collaborator |
| 0:51.2 | of its inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Formerly trained in pure mathematics, |
| 0:56.2 | she took the bold step of moving into computer science back in 1984. A decade later, she became |
| 1:02.2 | her university's first ever female professor of engineering. |
| 1:06.6 | Her interest today include the more sociological aspects of computer science and of keeping |
| 1:11.3 | the web as a tool for good. |
| 1:14.0 | Made a dame in 2009, she is one of the founders of the new discipline of web science. |
| 1:20.0 | She was also one of the few heads of an academic department that I can think of who suffered |
| 1:24.2 | the inconvenience of it being burnt to the ground early on in her tenure. |
| 1:29.2 | Wendy Hall, welcome to the Life Scientific. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.