Seamus Ross

Seamus Ross is a Professor at the Faculty of Information, University of Toronto, where he served as Dean from 2009 to 2015 and currently directs the Bachelor of Information Program. He is also a Senior Fellow at Massey College and a Fellow at St Michael’s College. Previously, he was Professor of Humanities Informatics and Founding Director of HATII at the University of Glasgow (1997–2009), where he is now Professor Emeritus. He has held visiting roles at institutions such as IMIS-Athena Research Centre and has been active in numerous international research initiatives.

His educational background includes a DPhil from the University of Oxford, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Vassar College.

Seamus Ross’s research centers on digital preservation, curation, digital humanities, and cultural heritage informatics. His work explores semantic extraction, genre classification, emulation, digital archaeology, and knowledge representation. He has contributed significantly to the development of digital curation frameworks and post-custodial models for archives and libraries. His recent publications reflect a sustained engagement with FAIR principles, open access, and the ethical dimensions of digital cultural heritage.

The trends in his scholarly output highlight a strong focus on the intersection of technology and cultural memory, with an emphasis on practical frameworks for long-term access, digital stewardship, and interdisciplinary collaboration in digital humanities.

• Elected Corresponding Fellow, Royal Society of Edinburgh (2016)

He has supervised multiple graduate students, including Cassandra D’Amico-Mazza and Hassan Asif, and has led numerous funded research projects, such as BlogForever, PLANETS, SHAMAN, and DL.ORG, supported by the European Commission, JISC, EPSRC, and others. He has also developed academic programs including the MSc in eDiscovery and Computer Forensics and the MA in Arts and Media Informatics.

Ross has been actively involved in leadership and service, chairing committees such as the BI Admissions and Curriculum Committees, and serving on the Scientific Committee for international symposia and editorial boards including IFLA Journal, KULA, and Studies in Digital Heritage. He has organized key events like the Semantic Digital Archives workshops and the ALISE/ASIST accreditation panel, shaping discourse in LIS education and digital curation.