Baltimore, MD -- June 18, 2025. The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) is pleased to announce that Dr. Mark Aldridge, Associate Professor of Screen Histories at Southampton Solent University and Agatha Christie historian, is the opening keynote speaker of the 2025 NISO Plus Global/Online conference (September 16–17).
Dr. Aldridge was lead researcher and writer on the BBC Maestro course on Agatha Christie, which launched in April 2025. The course is particularly notable for its use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the voice and appearance of an actress who plays Christie and teaches mystery-writing using the author's own words. Dr. Aldridge is also the author of several books on the novelist, including Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness (HarperCollins, 2024), Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World (HarperCollins, 2020), and Agatha Christie on Screen (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). He co-hosts and co-produces the podcast The Swinging Christies with writer Gray Robert Brown.
"The use of AI is accelerating throughout scholarly communications," said Todd Carpenter, NISO Executive Director. "As we work to harness its potential in ways that benefit the community, we're delighted to learn from a scholar about an innovative use of this technology. I'm also eager to hear Dr. Aldridge's thoughts on AI and its future impact on research, the humanities, and education more broadly."
Dr. Aldridge will give his talk on Tuesday, September 17, at approximately 9:30 am EDT/15:30 BST. Thanks to our generous sponsors—Cadmore Media, figshare, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, Bowker, OpenAthens, and Silverchair —tickets for the virtual conference are affordable, starting at just $49 for students, and discounts are available for NISO members, groups, retirees, and participants residing in LMIC countries. Reserve your place now for early bird rates, good through August 15!
About NISO
Based in Baltimore, MD, NISO's mission is to build knowledge, foster discussion, and advance authoritative standards development through collaboration among the cultural, scholarly, scientific, and professional communities. To fulfill this mission, NISO engages with libraries, publishers, information aggregators, and other organizations that support learning, research, and scholarship through the creation, organization, management, and curation of knowledge. NISO works with intersecting communities of interest and across the entire life cycle of information standards. NISO is a not-for-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). For more information, visit the NISO website (https://niso.org) or contact us at nisohq@niso.org.