Melissa Terras

Melissa Mhairi Terras (born 1975) is a British scholar of Digital Humanities. Since 2017, she has been Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage at the University of Edinburgh, and director of its Centre for Digital Scholarship. She previously taught at University College London, where she was Professor of Digital Humanities and served as director of its Centre for Digital Humanities from 2012 to 2017: she remains an honorary professor. She has a wide ranging academic background: she has an undergraduate degree in art history and English literature, then took a Master of Science (MSc) degree in computer science, before undertaking a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree at the University of Oxford in engineering.

Early life and education Terras was born in 1975 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland. She studied classical art history and English literature at the University of Glasgow.

Terras then moved to the University of Oxford, where she had funding via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to undertake a doctorate in engineering: she was based jointly in Oxford's Department of Engineering Science and the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents.

Academic career In August 2003, Terras joined University College London (UCL) as a lecturer in electronic communication and publishing and was based in the School of Library, Archive, and Information Studies. In 2010, she was promoted to Reader in Electronic Communication. She co-founded the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities and served as its director from 2012 to 2017. From 2015 to 2017, she was co-leader of a project analysing Egyptian mummy cases by non-destructive means (via digital imaging technology): the aim was to be able to read the papyrus that makes up a mummy's cartonnage.

On 20 July 2023, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA).

In 2024 she was elected a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and she was appointed MBE in the 2025 New Year Honours for services to digital humanities.

Selected works