The Full Monty (too many words): Dave Cliff has a bachelors degree in Computer Science from the University of Leeds, and masters and PhD degrees in Cognitive Science from the University of Sussex. He spent the first seven years of his career working as an academic, initially at University of Sussex UK and latterly as an associate professor in the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, Cambridge USA. Cliff's early research was in computational neuroscience/neuroethology studying visual control of gaze and flight in airborne insects; in using artificial evolution to automate the design of autonomous mobile robots; and in studying the coadaptive dynamics of competitive co-evolutionary arms-races (e.g. between species of predator and prey). In 1996, while working as a consultant for Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Cliff invented the seminal "ZIP" trading algorithm, one of the first of the current generation of autonomous adaptive algorithmic trading systems (open-sourced in 1997). In 1998 he resigned his post at MIT to take up a job as a senior research scientist at the HP Labs European Research Centre in Bristol, UK, where he founded and led HP's Complex Adaptive Systems research group, later being promoted to role of Department Scientist. In summer 2001, a team of researchers at IBM's Research Labs tested Cliff's ZIP and IBM's own "MGD" algorithms against human traders, under controlled experimental conditions. The human traders were consistently beaten by both MGD and ZIP, with the scores of ZIP and MGD being pretty much equal. This result led to international press coverage and significant attention from finance professionals. Later in 2001, Cliff published the first results showing that computers could automate not only the trading process, but also the process of designing and/or fine-tuning the trading algorithms along with the market mechanisms (such as those provided by exchange operators) within which the traders interact. Following a positive article on Cliff's work in The Economist news magazine in November 2002, Dave spent two hectic years working with HP's consulting wing and a number of tier-one financial institutions (exchange operators and investment banks) to develop this research into real applications. In early 2005, Cliff moved to Deutsche Bank's Foreign Exchange trading floor in London, where he worked as a director in Deutsche's FX Complex Risk Group. In late 2005, Cliff resigned from Deutsche to co-found Syritta Algorithmics Ltd, a privately-owned trading-technology development and consultancy company, and to serve as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, one of the UK's top centres for computer science research. In October 2005 Cliff was appointed Director of a national research consortium, addressing issues in the science and engineering of Large-Scale Complex IT Systems (LSCITS): this is a £14m ($28m) research project involving approx. 250 person-years of effort over the five years 2007-2012.  In July 2007, Cliff moved to become Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, one of the UK's top-ten computer science departments.  Cliff is author or co-author on over 70 academic journal or conference publications, inventor or co-inventor on15 patents, and is inventor or co-inventor on numerous further patent applications currently under review at patent offices in the US, UK, and Europe. He has undertaken advisory and consultancy work for a number of major companies in media, finance, and IT, and also for the UK Government.  He's given well over 100 invited keynote lectures and seminars; and he and his work have frequently been featured both in the press and on TV and radio: his work has been the topic of articles in the New Scientist magazine, The Financial Times (London) newspaper, and The Economist magazine (and many other publications), and he has been interviewed live on BBC TV News and Radio programmes. Born April 1966; one partner one son one daughter one dog. Hobbies: marathon running, mountaineering, and running marathons around/up/down mountains.

(360 words): Dave Cliff has a BSc in Computer Science, and masters and PhD degrees in Cognitive Science. He spent the first seven years of his career working as an academic, initially at University of Sussex UK and latterly as a professor in the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, USA. In 1996, while working as a consultant for Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Cliff invented the seminal "ZIP" trading algorithm, one of the first of the current generation of autonomous adaptive algorithmic trading systems (open-sourced in 1997). In 1998 he resigned his post at MIT to take up a job as a senior research scientist at the HP Labs European Research Centre in Bristol, UK, where he founded and led HP's Complex Adaptive Systems research group. In 2001, Cliff published the first results showing that computers could automate not only the trading process, but also the process of designing and/or fine-tuning the trading algorithms along with the market mechanisms (such as those provided by exchange operators) within which the traders interact.  In early 2005, Cliff moved to Deutsche Bank's Foreign Exchange trading floor in London, where he worked as a director in Deutsche's FX Complex Risk Group. In late 2005, Cliff resigned from Deutsche to co-found Syritta Algorithmics Ltd, a privately-owned trading-technology development and consultancy company, and to serve as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton UK. In October 2005 Cliff was appointed Director of a national research consortium, addressing issues in the science and engineering of Large-Scale Complex IT Systems (LSCITS): this is a £14m ($28m) research project running over the five years 2007-2012.  In July 2007, Cliff moved to become Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol. Cliff is author or co-author on over 70 academic journal or conference publications, inventor o co-inventor 15 patents, and is inventor or co-inventor on numerous further patent applications currently under review He has undertaken advisory and consultancy work for a number of major companies in media, finance, and IT, and also for the UK Government.  He's given well over 100 invited keynote lectures and seminars; and he and his work have frequently been featured both in the press and on TV and radio.

(250 words): Dave Cliff has a BSc in Computer Science and a PhD in Cognitive Science. He previously served on the faculty at the University of Sussex (UK), at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab (USA), and at the University of Southampton (UK). In 1998 he became a senior research scientist at the Hewlett-Packard Labs European Research Centre in Bristol, UK, where he founded and led HP's Complex Adaptive Systems research group, and where he developed adaptive autonomous trading algorithms and automatic optimization and design techniques for market mechanisms and online exchanges.  Cliff moved from HP to Deutsche Bank's Foreign Exchange trading floor in London, where he worked as a director in Deutsche's FX Complex Risk Group. Cliff later resigned from Deutsche to co-found Syritta Algorithmics Ltd, a privately-owned trading-technology development and consultancy company, and to serve as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton UK. In October 2005 Cliff was appointed Director of a national research consortium, addressing issues in the science and engineering of Large-Scale Complex IT Systems (LSCITS). In July 2007, Cliff moved to become Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol. He is author or co-author on over 70 academic publications, inventor or co-inventor on 15 patents; and he has undertaken advisory and consultancy work for a number of major companies and for the UK Government.  He's given well over 100 invited keynote lectures and seminars; and he and his work have frequently been featured both in the press and on TV and radio.

(150 words): Dave Cliff has worked at the University of Sussex, at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, at Hewlett-Packard Labs Bristol, at Deutsche Bank's London Foreign-Exchange Complex Risk Group, at the University of Southampton, and from July 2007 at the University of Bristol where he is Professor of Computer Science. He is also a founder of Syritta Algorithmics Ltd, a technology development and consultancy company. In October 2005 Cliff was appointed Director of a £14m five-year UK research consortium, addressing issues in the science and engineering of Large-Scale Complex IT Systems. He is author or co-author on over 70 academic publications, inventor or co-inventor on 15 patents; and he has undertaken advisory and consultancy work for a number of major companies and for the UK Government.  He's given well over 100 invited keynote lectures and seminars; and he and his work have frequently been featured both in the press and on TV and radio.

(115 words): Dave Cliff has worked as an academic at the Universities of Sussex and Southampton in the UK and at MIT in the USA. He has also been a research scientist for Hewlett-Packard Labs and for Deutsche Bank's Foreign-Exchange trading operation. He is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, and Director of a £14m 5-year research and training initiative addressing issues in the science and engineering of Large-Scale Complex IT Systems. He is author on over 70 academic publications, inventor on 15 patents; and he has undertaken extensive advisory and consultancy work.  He and his work have frequently been featured in the media, and he has given over 100 invited lectures and seminars.

(75 words): Dave Cliff has been an academic at the Universities of Sussex, Southampton, and MIT. He has also been a research scientist for Hewlett-Packard and for Deutsche Bank. He is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol, and Director of a £14m 5-year research initiative. He is author on over 70 academic publications, inventor on 15 patents; and he has undertaken extensive consultancy work. He and his work have frequently been featured in the media.

(50 words): Dave Cliff is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol. He has previously worked at MIT, Hewlett-Packard Labs, and for Deutsche Bank. He is author of over 70 academic publications and 15 patents; he's frequently hired for consultancy work, interviewed for media stories, and invited to give lectures. 

(38 words): Dave Cliff is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol.  He is author of over 70 academic publications and 15 patents; he's frequently hired for consultancy work, interviewed for media stories, and invited to give lectures. 

(23 words): Dave Cliff is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol.  He is author of over 70 academic publications and 15 patents

(12 words): Dave Cliff is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Bristol.