David Spiegelhalter

Sir David Spiegelhalter is Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the University of Cambridge, where he held the Winton Professorship for the Public Understanding of Risk and chaired the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005, awarded an OBE in 2006, and knighted in 2014 for services to medical statistics, he led the Royal Statistical Society as president in 2017 and 2018.

His bestselling The Art of Statistics has been translated into eleven languages, followed by Covid by Numbers and The Art of Uncertainty. He presented the BBC documentaries on chance and climate numbers, led the statistical teams behind the Bristol heart-surgery and Shipman inquiries, and collected Guy Medals in bronze, silver, and gold.

A fixture of British media through the Covid crisis, he communicates uncertainty to health professionals, courts, journalists, and policymakers — and still found time for Desert Island Discs and a seventh-place finish on Winter Wipeout. In the October 9 antidebate he takes on whether it makes sense to talk of chances for things like God’s existence, moral truths, or the best Beatles album.