EDINBURGH University has struck an unprecedented blow for UK academe by simultaneously filling three chairs in the same subject area with candidates from the US.

This reversal of the traditional brain drain comes in the wake of additional money for the university after excellent scores in funding council ratings for its work in informatics.

As well as the three chairs, six further academic posts are being created as a new division of informatics is established, bringing together the departments of computer science and artificial intelligence.

Professor Mike Fourman, head of the informatics unit, said Edinburgh University had by far the largest concentration of excellence in this area in the UK.

He said the posts would allow further developments in refining methods of communication between humans and machines.

''I don't know if this has happened before but, in one go, it is certainly starting to reverse the brain drain. The changing use of technology means the interaction with the technologies is becoming more and more important,'' he said.

Informatics Professor Bonnie Webber has a specialist interest in use of new technology to help surgeons faced with having quickly to diagnose and treat different problems when a casualty with multiple trauma is brought in.

Her husband, cognitive science Professor Mark Steedman, is also from the University of Pennsylvania. He is returning to Edinburgh after leaving a decade ago to further his career in the US.

''Edinburgh has a long tradition of work in this area. It is a very exciting group to work with and I could not resist it when I heard that they were starting this initiative,'' he said.

The third chair, in artificial intelligence, is being filled by Professor Johanna Moore from the University of Pittsburgh. Her nterest is in how computers might be developed as tutors, where they still lag behind the best teaching success rates achieved by one-to-one human contact.