People

Dr Sara Johansson Fernstad

Senior Lecturer, NoVA Co-Lead
sara.fernstad@newcastle.ac.uk

Sara is a Senior Lecturer in Data Science with expertise in visualization and is Newcastle University’s academic lead for the Turing University Network.

Dr Alma Cantu

Lecturer
alma.cantu@newcastle.ac.uk

Alma is a Lecture in Data Science in the School of Computing. She specialises in Data Visualization, investigating human perception to improve visualisation of complex data.

Professor Daniel Archambault

Professor, NoVA Co-Lead
daniel.archambault@newcastle.ac.uk

Daniel is a Professor of Visualization/Data Science. His research helps visualisation and visual analytics systems scale to the age of data science.

Dr Xinhuan Shu

Lecturer
📋 MSc Human-Centred AI Degree Programme Director
xinhuan.shu@newcastle.ac.uk

Xinhuan is a Lecturer in Computer Science.

Dr Alexander Macquisten

Research Associate
alexander.macquisten@newcastle.ac.uk

Alexander is a Research Associate in Data Science In the School of Computing. They are currently working on machine learning and data visualization solutions to disaggregate home water usage.

Hugh Garner

PhD student (April 2019 – now)
h.garner2@newcastle.ac.uk

Aljawharah Almajyul

PhD student (Sept. 2021 – now)
a.a.n.almajyul2@newcastle.ac.uk

Aljawharah Almajyul is a PhD student in the School of Computing at Newcastle University, where she research complex network graph visualization.

Lama Alsmmahi

PhD student (Nov. 2022 – now)
l.alsmmahi2@newcastle.ac.uk

Lama is a Phd Student interested in data visualization and machine learning. She is also a lecturer in the Data Science department at University of Jeddah.

Fatimah Alqahtani

PhD student (Sept. 2023 – now)
f.m.m.alqahtani2@newcastle.ac.uk

Fatimah is a PhD student in the School of Computing at Newcastle University, where she explore the intersection of machine learning and data visualization.

Luke Watkin

PhD student (Sept. 2024 – now)
l.watkin1@newcastle.ac.uk

Luke is a PhD student interested in visualisation techniques for machine learning explainability.

George Bell

PhD student (Jan. 2025 – now)
g.bell1@newcastle.ac.uk

George is a PhD student in the School of Computing at Newcastle University, where he researches perception for immersive visualisation.

Hannah Kim

PhD student (Sep. 2025 – now)
s.kim15@newcastle.ac.uk

Hannah is a PhD student in the Faculty of Medical Science, where her research focuses on evaluating and improving a Clinical Decision Support System. Her work examines the system’s alignment with clinical guidelines and expert practice, and how it supports patients and clinicians in making informed healthcare decisions.

Hongyu (Peter) Wang

PhD student (Oct. 2025 – now)
h.wang121@newcastle.ac.uk

Hongyu is a PhD student in the School of Computing at Newcastle University, where his research focuses on AI-assisted code generation and validation.

Dr Mike Simpson

Research Software Engineer
RSE Team, Newcastle University
mike.simpson@newcastle.ac.uk

Mike is a Research Software Engineer at Newcastle University, with a background in game development and data visualisation.

Dr Gabrielle Schroeder

Research Software Engineer
RSE Team, Newcastle University
gabrielle.schroeder@newcastle.ac.uk

Gabrielle is a Research Software Engineer at Newcastle University with a background in data science and computational neuroscience.

Dr Kenan Koc
PhD student (2018-2022)

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Dr Alexander Macquisten
PhD student (2017-2022)

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Dr Osman Akbulut
PhD student (2019-2024)

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Lucy McLaughlin
PhD student (2021-2023)

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Dr Hanin Alzahrani
PhD student (2021-2024)

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Dr Sarah Alsufyani
PhD student (2020-2026)

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