40 Facts About Andy Hopper

Sir Andrew Hopper was born on 9 May 1953 and is a British-Polish computer technologist and entrepreneur.

Andy Hopper is Chairman of lowRISC CIC, a Commissioner of the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, former Treasurer and Vice-President of the Royal Society, Professor Emeritus of Computer Technology at the University of Cambridge, an Honorary Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

Andy Hopper was educated at Quintin Kynaston School in London after which he went to study for a Bachelor of Science degree at Swansea University before going to the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1974 for postgraduate work.

Andy Hopper was awarded his PhD in 1978 for research into local area computer communications networks supervised by David Wheeler.

Andy Hopper's PhD, completed in 1977 was in the field of communications networks, and he worked with Maurice Wilkes on the creation of the Cambridge Ring and its successors.

Andy Hopper's interests include computer networks, multimedia systems, Virtual Network Computing, sentient computing and ubiquitous data.

Andy Hopper's most cited paper describes the indoor location system called the Active Badge.

Andy Hopper has contributed to a discussion of the privacy challenges relating to surveillance.

Andy Hopper is a proponent of Digital Commons industrial and societal infrastructure.

Andy Hopper returned to the Computer Laboratory as Professor of Computer Technology and Head of Department in 2004.

In 1978, Andy Hopper co-founded Orbis Ltd to develop networking technologies.

Andy Hopper worked with Hermann Hauser and Chris Curry, founders of Acorn Computers Ltd.

In 1985, after leaving Acorn, Andy Hopper co-founded Qudos, a company producing CAD software and doing chip prototyping.

In 1993, Andy Hopper set up Advanced Telecommunication Modules Ltd with Hermann Hauser.

Andy Hopper was acquired by Conexant Systems on 1 March 2004.

In 1995, Andy Hopper co-founded Telemedia Systems, now called IPV, and was its chairman until 2003.

In 1997, Andy Hopper co-founded Adaptive Broadband Ltd to further develop the 'Wireless ATM' project started at ORL in the early 90s.

In 2002 Andy Hopper was involved in the founding of Ubisense Ltd to further develop the location technologies and sentient computing concepts that grew out of the ORL Active Badge system.

Andy Hopper became a director in 2003 and was chairman between 2006 and 2015 during which the company made its initial public offering in June 2011.

In 2002, Andy Hopper co-founded RealVNC and served as chairman until the company was sold in 2021.

In 2002, Andy Hopper co-founded Level 5 Networks and was a director until 2008, just after it merged with Solarflare.

From 2005 until 2009, Andy Hopper was chairman of Adventiq, a joint venture between Adder and RealVNC, developing a VNC-based system-on-a-chip.

In 2013 Andy Hopper co-founded TxtEz, a company looking to commoditise B2C communication in Africa.

Andy Hopper was an advisor to Hauser's venture capital firm Amadeus Capital Partners from 2001 until 2005.

Andy Hopper was an advisor to the Cambridge Gateway Fund from 2001 until 2006.

Andy Hopper is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and was a Trustee from 2003 until 2006, and again between 2009 and 2013.

In 2004, Andy Hopper was awarded the Mountbatten Medal of the IET.

Andy Hopper served as president of the IET between 2012 and 2013.

Andy Hopper was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1996 and awarded their silver medal in 2003.

Andy Hopper was a member of the Council of the Royal Academy of Engineering from 2007 to 2010.

In 1999, Andy Hopper gave the Royal Society's Clifford Paterson Lecture on Progress and research in the communications industry published under the title Sentinent Computing and was thus awarded the society's bronze medal for achievement.

Andy Hopper was a member of the Council of the Royal Society between 2009 and 2011.

In 2017, Andy Hopper become treasurer and vice-president of the Royal Society and was awarded the Bakerian Lecture and Prize.

In 2004, Andy Hopper was awarded the Association for Computing Machinery's SIGMOBILE Outstanding Contribution Award and in 2016 the Test-of-Time Award for the Active Badge paper.

In July 2005, Andy Hopper was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Swansea University.

In 2010 Andy Hopper was awarded an Honorary Degree from Queen's University Belfast.

In 2011 Andy Hopper was elected as member of the Council and Trustee of the University of Cambridge and a member of the Finance Committee.

Andy Hopper was knighted in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to computer technology.

Andy Hopper married Alison Gail Smith, Professor of Plant Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, in 1988.

Andy Hopper is a qualified pilot with over 6,000 hours logged, including a round the world flight, and his house near Cambridge has an airstrip from which he flies his six-seater Cessna light aircraft.