The lab space is in the heart of London, in the Virginia Woolf building close to the Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) and the main Strand campus of King’s College London.

The members of the lab are motivated by problem solving and innovation and come from a variety of backgrounds, both commercial and academic. We pride ourselves on being approachable and being able to communicate technical concepts effectively to a range of audiences. Similarly, we have worked in many subject areas and are accustomed to absorbing new ideas, discussing new directions, and learning with our project partners.

We are closely affiliated with the Department of Digital Humanities (DDH) at King’s College, having formed a separate unit in 2015. Our close connections with our digital humanities colleagues allow us to collaborate on research, to work with students and interns studying at DDH and to draw on expertise.

As part of our commitment to emergent technology we hold regular technical review sessions to discuss the potentials and application of new devices, software and techniques.

We take a collective, role-based, approach to our work. If you would like to contact us please email kdl-info@kcl.ac.uk and we will ensure the right person is assigned to you.

The KDL team

  • Sam

    Samantha Callaghan

    Research Software Analyst

    Samantha has an MLIS and received her training in the field of digitisation through her work at the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre. She has worked on a wide variety of digitisation projects, large and small, both in NZ and in the UK. She has written or co-written articles around interlibrary loan, digitisation and Mātauranga Māori, digitisation in small institutions and orphan work licensing schemes.

    Read more

  • Paul Profile New

    Dr. Paul Caton

    Deputy Director and Senior Research Software Analyst

    Paul Caton took up his first digital humanities post - as Electronic Publications Editor at the Women Writers Project - whilst completing his Ph.D in English Literature at Brown University. He also worked as a project analyst for Brown's Scholarly Technology Group.

    Read more

  • Arianna

    Dr. Arianna Ciula

    Director & Senior Research Software Analyst

    Arianna is an Analyst at KDL and has broad experience in digital humanities research and teaching, research management, and digital research infrastructures. She holds a PhD in Manuscript and Book Studies (digital palaeography, University of Siena), an MA in Applied Computing in the Humanities (King’s College London) and a BA Hons in Communication sciences (computational linguistics, University of Siena).

    Read more

  • alessandra profile 2023

    Alessandra Esposito

    Research Software Project Manager

    Alessandra is responsible for high-level project management of internally and externally funded projects, liaising between the Solution Development Team (SDT) and project partners, as well as working closely with the Director and Lab Manager to ensure the efficient running of the Lab.

    Read more

  • Elliot profile new

    Elliott Hall

    Senior Research Software Engineer

    Elliott's research is at the technical end of the department's spectrum. His focus is on building sites that bring a new level of interactivity to work with data that is often fuzzy and confusing.

    Read more

  • Neil new profile

    Neil Jakeman

    Senior Research Software Analyst

    Neil came to the Department of Digital Humanities as a Research Developer in 2011 to help guide development in the spatial turn that DH research was enjoying at that time. He specializes in digital creative practice  (in particular using 3D technologies) and in geographic information systems.

    Read more

  • Brian Profile

    Brian Maher

    Senior Research Software Engineer & Systems Administrator

    After completing his MSc in Bioinformatics at KCL, Brian joined the
    Department of Digital Humanities in 2013 as a Research Developer
    working on two projects - “The Art of Making” and “The Making of

    Charlemagne’s Europe”.

    Read more

  • Pam

    Pamela Mellen

    Research Software Lab Manager

    Pamela Mellen oversees the Lab's business functions and is deeply involved in managing the Lab's strategic and continuous improvement goals. She has worked at King's since 2012, where she developed a solid background in research management before moving across to the newly formed Digital Lab in 2016.

    Read more

  • Lucie Mingmei Hao

    Lucie Mingmei Hao

    Research Software UI/UX Designer

    Lucie joined KDL in August 2023 as a designer. She has an interdisciplinary background with expertise in academic research, human-computer interaction, frontend and web technologies, UI/UX. She is keen to draw connections between both digital media and innovative technologies. she also has practical experience in industry-focused media projects. 

    Read more

  • Geoff profile

    Geoffroy Noël

    Senior Research Software Engineer

    Geoffroy is a programmer analyst who joined King's College London in 2008, after more than nine years working for various technology startups in Brussels and London, and has since contributed to and led the analysis and software development of several Digital Humanities projects.

    Read more

  • Tiff profile 2

    Tiffany Ong

    Senior Research Software UI/UX Designer

    Tiffany is a designer with a background in textiles.  She completed her BA in Ravensbourne college and later an MA at the Royal College of Art. 

    Read more

  • Miguel

    Miguel Vieira

    Principal Research Software Engineer

    Miguel Vieira has worked in the digital humanities domain since 2006, when he joined the Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King's College London.

    Read more

  • Tom profile new

    Tim Watts

    Senior Research Software Systems Manager

    Tim loves Linux and Perl and is a firm believer that open source software benefits mankind.

    Read more

Academic Affiliates

  • marilyn deegan

    Professor Marilyn Deegan

    Academic Affiliate


    Marilyn has 20 years experience in digital humanities. Formerly the Director of the Centre for Humanities Computing, Oxford University. Director of Digital Resources, Refugee Studies Centre, Oxford University (1997-2004).

  • stuart

    Dr. Stuart Dunn

    Academic Affiliate

    Stuart Dunn is Head of the Department of Digital Humanities at King's. He started out as an archaeologist, with interests in the history of cartography, digital approaches to landscape studies, and spatial humanities. Stuart has worked with members of the KDL team on many projects.

  • willard

    Professor Willard McCarty

    Academic Affiliate

    Willard began with mainframes, trained as a Miltonist with focus on
    biblical and classical literature, helped nurture infant digital
    humanities and is now a persistent questioner of its fitness to be of as
    well as in these disciplines. He was at Toronto until he joined King’s
    in 1996. Now he edits Interdisciplinary Science Reviews and is
    co-organiser of the Cambridge workshop, “Science in the Forest, Science
    in the Past”, with Sir Geoffrey Lloyd and Aparecida Vilaça.

    Read more

  • Charlotte profile

    Professor Charlotte Roueché

    Academic Affiliate

    Charlotte is a classicist by training, with a particular interest in the later periods of the Roman world, and in the Byzantine Empire. She has worked with the digital humanists at King’s since the early 1990s, and since 2004 has published online corpora, and literary texts, exploring the uses of changing technologies.

    Read more

  • Harold New Profile

    Professor Harold Short

    Academic Affiliate

    Harold Short is Emeritus Professor of King’s College London, where he founded and directed the Centre for Computing in the Humanities.

    Read more

Consultancy Affiliates

  • simon tanner

    Professor Simon Tanner

    Pro Vice Dean (Impact & Innovation), Arts & Humanities

    Simon Tanner has over 20 years’ experience working  with major cultural institutions across the world to assist them to transform their collections and online presence. 

    Read more

Research Fellows

  • jb

    John Bradley

    Honorary Research Fellow

    John has worked in the Digital Humanities since the late 1970s; first at the University of Toronto, and then, starting in 1997, at King's College London in the Department of Digital Humanities (initially called the Centre for Computing in the Humanities).

    Read more

  • KT

    Katherine Bode

    Visiting Research Fellow

    Katherine Bode is Associate Professor of Literary and Textual Studies at the Australian National University and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow from 2018 to 2023. 

    Read more

  • Ginestra Profile new 2

    Visiting Research Fellow

    Ginestra Ferraro

    Ginestra is a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, her research focusing on UI/UX design, particularly on Design Workflow Integration. She is also a co-organiser of London Web Standards, a non-profit organisation that provides monthly events for web enthusiasts and the annual conference State of the Browser.

    Read more

Former staff

  • Luis

    Luis Figueira

    Former Software Developer

    Luis worked as a software developer at KDL from 2015-2016.

    Read more

  • Shalen profile pic

    Shalen Fu

    Former Research Software Project Manager

    Shalen worked at KDL from 2022-2023, managing the Lab’s project portfolio and ensuring continuous improvement of the Lab’s project delivery processes.

    Read more

  • olga_mq

    Olga Loboda

    Former Research Software UI/UX Designer

    With a background in digital humanities and front-end development, Olga joined King’s Digital Lab as a UX/UI Designer from 2019 to 2021.

  • Chris 2

    Chris Pak

    Former Postdoctoral Research Associate

    Chris worked on the project 'Modelling between Digital and Humanities: Thinking in Practice', funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, from September 2017-April 2018. 

    Read more

  • Florence_photo.jpg

    Florence du Pré

    Former Research Software Project Manager

    Florence worked at the Lab from 2019-2022, supporting the delivery of KDL's projects. She completed the MA Digital Humanities at King's College London in 2016 and has experience in the IT and GLAM sector.

    Read more

  • Urszula Pawlicka-Deger

    Dr. Urszula Pawlicka-Deger

    Former Marie Curie Research Fellow

    Urszula was a Marie Curie Research Fellow at King’s Digital Lab. Prior to this position, she was a postdoctoral researcher at Aalto University, a Fulbright scholar at Washington State University Vancouver, and a fellow at Stony Brook University, King’s College London, and the University of Birmingham. 

    Read more

  • natasha_mq

    Dr. Natasha Romanova

    Former Digital Methods Lead

    Natasha was KDL's  Digital Methods Lead from July-December 2019 as part of DARIAH-DESIR project.

    Read more

  • Priyal Shah

    Priyal Shah

    Former UI/UX Designer

    Priyal contributed to the Alice Thornton project, amongst others during her time as a UI/UX Designer at the Lab

  • James Profile New 2

    Dr. James Smithies

    Former Lab Director

    James Smithies was Director of King’s Digital Lab (KDL) at King’s College London from 2015-September 2021.

    Read more

  • Carina Profile New

    Carina Westling

    Former Project Manager and Visiting Research Fellow

    Carina worked at King’s Digital Lab as project manager, collaborating with her colleagues to develop processes for putting 100 legacy digital humanities projects under contractual agreement and secure maintenance or responsible archiving.

    Read more

How to find us