[4] Wilson converted in the 1960s from theoretical physics to the social sciences through research on the mathematical modelling of cities (working in Oxford and London).
From 1961 to 1964, he was a Scientific Officer in the Theoretical Physics Group at the Rutherford Laboratory; from 1964 to 1966, a Research Officer at the Institute of Economics and Statistics in the University of Oxford; from 1966 to 1968, Head of the Mathematical Advisory Group at the Ministry of Transport; and from 1968 to 1970, assistant director of the Centre for Environmental Studies in London.
[citation needed] In September, 2007, he joined University College London to serve as Professor of Urban and Regional Systems at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis[5][6] He was the Chairman of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) from 2007 to 2013.
In 2016, he was appointed as Interim CEO of the Alan Turing Institute[8] before becoming director of special projects when Adrian Smith took over.
He retired as executive chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute in February 2020, having overseen the organisation's development phase, and was succeeded by Dame Wendy Hall.