Professor Richard Guest

Richard Guest is Professor of Biometric Systems Engineering and Deputy Director of Division.

He received a BEng (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of York in 1995. This was followed by a PhD in Electronic Engineering from the University of Kent in 2000. His research work is in the area of biometric technologies, examining aspects of systems deployment and algorithm development, usability, standardisation, sample quality and conformance. His work has also examined the use of human identification/verification mechanisms within automated processes.

He is a member of the UK Government’s Biometric and Forensic Ethics Committee and a core member of the Kent Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Cyber Security. He is also the Chair of the Training and Education Committee of the European Association of Biometrics (EAB) and a Fellow of the British Computer Society and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He has had significant involvement with biometrics standards development as UK Principal Expert to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC37.

He has attracted over £4M over the past 10 years from external sources of funding including EPSRC, EU, ESRC, Leverhulme and industry as PI of 20 separate research grants. He has published over 125 peer reviewed articles and his research featured in the Government Select Committee Report into the Future of Biometrics and also in the Government Chief Scientist’s Annual Report. 

He was the Project Coordinator for the AMBER EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN in Mobile Biometrics (2017-2020) and was Kent PI on the EPSRC Hummingbird Project (2018-2019). He is also a member of the Kent academic team for the PriMa EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie ITN (2020-2023).

Richard Guest has extensive research experience in the areas of image processing and pattern recognition specialising in biometric and forensic applications, His current research work is exploring the relationship between human and machine decision making processes, and issue concerning the use of mobile platforms for biometric authentication.     

Chartered Engineer

Fellow of the British Computer Society

Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)