Prof. Ian Angell

Author of Science's First Mistake; LSE Professor

Professor Ian Angell first came to prominence through his work in computer graphics, and apart from his academic output has written the software and produced animation sequences for television advertisements and for science and business programmes. At one time the animation package he wrote with one of his students, Gareth Griffith, was the market leader in the UK. Griffith subsequently went on to write the software used in Spielberg's Jurassic Park.

Angell has published ten books on computer graphics, including one co-written with a then-colleague at LSE, Dimitrios Tsoubelis, and entitled Advanced graphics on VGA and XGA cards using Borland C++. With a colleague, Dr. Steve Smithson, he produced a well-known book that stresses the more conservative aspects of this social science perspective, Information Systems Management: Opportunities and Risks. Within this broad field he has two particular and related specialities: 'systemic risk', and 'the global consequences of information technology.' He founded the highly respected LSE Research Centre for the study of Computer Security.

Angell acts as a consultant on the management, security and strategic impact of information systems, to many national and international organisations and to a number of governments and the EU. Until 2000 he was a personal advisor to the Cabinet of the Director General of UNESCO (Federico Mayor), and he has consulted for the Russian Ministry of Science on the impact of IT on employment.

January 2000 saw the publication of Angell's book The New Barbarian Manifesto, in which he lays out his advice on how to win in an increasingly complex, brutal and brutish world. It has been translated into Chinese and Korean and even reached number 5 in the Amazon.com best-sellers list in Brazil. His most recent book, jointly authored with his friend and colleague Dionysios Demetis, is Science's First Mistake, which looks at the failure of the scientific approach when facing societal complexity – a topic all too relevant given the turmoil in today's financial markets.