14 Facts About David Spiegelhalter

Sir David John Spiegelhalter was born on 16 August 1953 and is a British statistician and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

David Spiegelhalter is currently Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at Cambridge.

David Spiegelhalter was educated at Barnstaple Grammar School, a state grammar school in Barnstaple, Devon, from 1963 to 1970.

David Spiegelhalter then studied mathematics at Keble College, Oxford, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.

David Spiegelhalter moved to University College London, where he gained his Master of Science degree in statistics in 1975 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in mathematical statistics in 1978.

David Spiegelhalter has been an honorary lecturer at the University of Hong Kong since 1991.

David Spiegelhalter has been a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and the World Anti-Doping Agency.

David Spiegelhalter played a leading role in the public inquiries into children's heart surgery at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, the murders by Harold Shipman, the independent inquiry on Mid Staffs Trust and, more recently, the infected blood inquiry.

David Spiegelhalter left the MRC in March 2012 and worked full-time at the Statistical Laboratory as the Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk until his retirement.

In 2012, David Spiegelhalter hosted the BBC Four documentary Tails You Win: The Science of Chance which described the application of probability in everyday life.

David Spiegelhalter presented a 2013 Cambridge Science Festival talk, How to Spot a Shabby Statistic at the Babbage Lecture Theatre in Cambridge.

David Spiegelhalter was elected as President of the Royal Statistical Society, and took up the position on 1 January 2017.

In March 2020 David Spiegelhalter launched a podcast called Risky Talk where he interviews experts in risk and evidence communication on topics like genetics, nutrition, climate change and immigration.

David Spiegelhalter appeared on BBC Desert Island Discs on 6 February 2022.