Stephen Robertson

I was born in Suffolk, but I have lived most of my life in London. I now divide my time between London and north Norfolk.

My first wife died of cancer in 2005. I met my present wife in 2007. I have two children, two stepchildren, two grandchildren, and two stepgrandchildren. I also have two sisters, three brothers, and quite a lot of nephews, nieces and grand-ditto.

All my working life, I have been a researcher, mainly in the field now commonly known as search (as in ‘search engine’), but internally known as ‘information retrieval’. After my first degree in mathematics, I took a masters’ course in information science. I worked in a semi-commercial research organisation for a while, then had a 25 year academic career, and finally worked in a Microsoft research lab in Cambridge. I am now retired. My professional life is represented here.

For most of my life, I have written very occasional poetry. However, in 2005 I joined the Girton College poetry group, for which many of the poems on this site were written. (If the site you are on now looks rather like the Girton one, it’s because I maintain both of them!) I also maintain a site of my father's poetry.