Nigel Cross (born 1942) is a British academic, a design researcher and educator, Emeritus Professor of Design Studies at The Open University,[1] United Kingdom, where he was responsible for developing the first distance-learning courses in design in the early 1970s.[2] He was an editor of the journal Design Studies from its inception in 1979, Editor in Chief 1984-2017 and Emeritus Editor in Chief 2018-23. Cross helped clarify and develop the concept of design thinking (or "designerly ways of knowing") related to the development of design as an academic discipline.[3][4] He is one of the key people of the Design Research Society.