Diane Proudfoot

Diane Proudfoot is an Honorary Research Associate Professor in the School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry at the University of Queensland. She is also Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She has extensive international academic experience with visiting positions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, New York University, Georgetown University, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Her educational background includes degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Dartmouth College, University of California at Berkeley (as a Fulbright-Hays Scholar), and University of Cambridge (as an Andrew Carnegie Scholar). She co-founded the Turing Archive for the History of Computing in 2000 with Jack Copeland, which has received significant recognition including the Encyclopedia Britannica Internet Guide Award for Excellence and the Scientific American Sci/Tech Award. They also received a Marsden Grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand for research into the philosophical foundations of cognitive and computer science.

• Philosophy and history of Artificial Intelligence
• Turing studies and historical analysis of computing
• Wittgenstein's philosophical contributions to cognitive science
• Philosophy of cognitive science and language
• Philosophy and psychology of religion
• Digital metaphysics and theological implications of computing

Her recent research focuses on Turing's contributions to AI, anthropomorphism in human-robot interaction, and digital metaphysics. Her publications reveal a consistent pattern of examining the philosophical foundations of computing while bridging historical context with contemporary AI developments. She critically assesses both popular misconceptions about AI and deeper philosophical questions about machine intelligence.

• Encyclopedia Britannica Internet Guide Award for Excellence
• Scientific American Sci/Tech Award
• Marsden Grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand

Professor Proudfoot is actively involved in supervision of students and continues to advance research in the philosophy of AI through her work with the Turing Archive. She has secured significant research funding including the Marsden Grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand. Her work on the Turing Archive represents a major contribution to preserving and making accessible primary historical materials on computing history.

As co-director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing (http://www.alanturing.net/index.htm), she leads what is considered the largest web collection of digital facsimiles of original documents by Turing and other pioneers of computing. This digital archive serves as an essential resource for researchers worldwide studying the history and philosophy of computing.