David Spiegelhalter is Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk and Fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University. His background is in medical statistics, particularly the use of Bayesian methods in clinical trials, health technology assessment and drug safety. As Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence... Read more
David Spiegelhalter is Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk and Fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University. His background is in medical statistics, particularly the use of Bayesian methods in clinical trials, health technology assessment and drug safety.
As Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication, he works to improve the way in which risk and statistical evidence are taught and discussed in society. He gives many presentations to schools and others, advises organisations and government agencies on risk communication, and is a regular commentator on current risk issues.
He presented the BBC4 documentaries ‘Tails you Win: the Science of Chance” and the award-winning “Climate Change by Numbers”, and in 2011 came 7th in an episode of Winter Wipeout on BBC1.
David Spiegelhalter has over 200 refereed publications and is co-author of 6 textbooks, as well as The Norm Chronicles (with Michael Blastland) and Sex by Numbers. He is a Fellow of Churchill College Cambridge, an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Risk Management, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005. He has contributed to many formal investigations, including the inquiries into Bristol children’s heart surgery, Harold Shipman’s murders, and the breast implant scandal.
David Spiegelhalter was awarded an OBE in 2006 and knighted in 2014, both for services to medical statistics.
Tails You Win: The Science of Chance, is a BBC Documentary in which David Spiegelhalter uses a blend of wit and wisdom, animation, graphics and gleeful nerdery to pin down what chance is and how it works in the real world.