Gail C. Murphy

Gail C. Murphy is a policy advisor to ITIF's Canada Centre for Innovation and Competitiveness. She is a Professor of Computer Science and Vice President, Research and Innovation at the University of British Columbia. Prior to her appointment as VPRI, Dr. Murphy served as the Associate Vice-President, Research pro tem and was formerly Associate Dean (Research and Graduate Studies) in the Faculty of Science at UBC. Tasktop Technologies Incorporated, one of UBC’s most successful spin-off companies, was co-founded by Dr. Murphy and her former PhD student Mik Kersten in 2007. Dr. Murphy served as Chief Scientist at Tasktop until assuming the position of VPRI in August 2017.

The VPRI portfolio is comprised of 15 distinct units that support the activities of UBC researchers to attract and manage funding, establish research partnerships, meet compliance obligations and access advanced computing and sequencing resources. It is also at the heart of Innovation UBC, a diverse, campus-wide network that fosters entrepreneurial learning and partnerships with industry and the broader community to transform research into new products, policies and practices that improve lives around the world.

After completing her B.Sc. at the University of Alberta in 1987, Dr. Murphy worked for five years as a software engineer in the Lower Mainland. She later pursued graduate studies in computer science at the University of Washington, earning first an M.Sc. (1994) and then a PhD (1996). In 2018 she won the IEEE Computer Society Harlan D. Mills Award, which recognizes researchers and practitioners who have demonstrated long-standing, sustained and impactful contributions to software engineering practice and research through the development and application of sound theory.