Correct use of the semicolon in a complex list with internal commas

Hello everyone,

I am working on an academic paper and want to ensure my punctuation is flawless. I'm confident using a semicolon to separate items in a series when those items contain commas, but I've written a sentence that feels more complex, and I'm second-guessing myself.

Here is the sentence I have constructed:

"The conference attendees included Dr. Eva Reid, a neuroscientist from Cambridge, Mr. Thomas Lee, a novelist known for his historical fiction, and Ms. Anya Sharma, a software engineer specializing in AI."

My instinct is that this long list of titles and descriptions could be clarified with semicolons for better readability, as follows:

"The conference attendees included Dr. Eva Reid, a neuroscientist from Cambridge; Mr. Thomas Lee, a novelist known for his historical fiction; and Ms. Anya Sharma, a software engineer specializing in AI."

Is my revised version with semicolons the correct and more professional approach? Or is the original version with commas still technically acceptable?

I would appreciate any clarification or confirmation on this rule. Thank you in advance for your help

You have written what is known as a complex series in the 2nd version. These are a series of sentences with internal punctuation. Your semicolon has been placed correctly in this case and does not require any improvements since you are using it as a separator for a compound list. As you can see, your individual list already includes commas, which created a complex phrase. It is suffice to say that you have avoided creating a confusing presentation for your reader in this case. I would advise you to use the second version in this case since it carries the more appropriate punctuation usage. The first one works, but it is not as grammatically advanced in terms of presentation when compared to the 2nd sentence series.