Timothy W. Bickmore is a professor in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern in 2005, he was an assistant professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine. In 2003, he completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory.

With his interdisciplinary approach to research, Bickmore concentrates on the intersection of human-computer interaction, natural language processing (dialogue systems), animation, and health/medical/behavioral informatics. His research focuses on the development and evaluation of computer agents that emulate face-to-face interactions between health providers and patients. His emphasis on the emotional and relational aspects of those interactions allows for his research to be suited for use in health education and long-term health behavior change interventions.

As the director of the Relational Agents Group, he works with his team to simulate face-to-face counseling with a focus on the relational aspects of those interactions. In addition, Bickmore has chaired or co-chaired several meetings, including Intelligent Virtual Agents, and AAAI symposia and CHI workshops on health informatics and virtual agents. He is an associate editor of the Interacting with Computers journal and has presented his research internationally. His work has received funding from NSF, NIH, AHRQ, HRSA, and PCORI.