< Back to Resources for educators
In this section

RSS William Guy Lecturers

 

The RSS William Guy Lecturers are prestigious volunteer roles intended to celebrate the importance of engaging with schools and inspiring children about statistics from an early age. They are named in honour of William Augustus Guy, an early medical statistician and past RSS president. 

Three William Guy Lecturers are appointed for every academic year. Each lecturer prepares and records a talk for a particular age range. Every year we ask for talks on a particular theme.  

We encourage schools to use these talks (~20-25 minutes in length) as part of their learning resources. Schools are also welcome to contact the lecturers to request in-person visits or live sessions online. We also encourage schools to contact the lecturers with questions that students may have about the talks, to enable interactive dialogue and stimulate engagement. 

We hope that the William Guy Lecturer talks will be a useful and engaging resource for a broad and diverse range of schools, and will inspire students to discover the interesting and relevant applications of statistics and data science in the real world.

The current Royal Statistical Society William Guy Lecturers 2026-27 

This academic year (1 August 2026– 31 July 2027), the theme is Statistics and Misinformation.  Find out more about our current William Guy Lecturers, how to contact them, and watch their talks. 

 
3 William Guy Lecturers presenters
 
  • Dr Takoua Jendoubi, Associate Professor in Statistical Data Science (Teaching) at University College London, and William Guy Lecturer for ages 11-14: Can you trust your feed? Deepfakes, algorithms, and the science and misinformation.     
  • Dr Jonathan Davies, Senior Statistical Officer at Department for Work and Pensions, and William Guy Lecturer for ages 15-16: Lies, damned lies, and statistics. 
  • Professor Tom Crick MBE, Chief Scientific Adviser at Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and Professor of Digital Society and Policy at University of Bristol, and William Guy Lecturer for ages 16+: Can you trust the numbers? Statistics, misinformation and the information ecosystem. 
    

William Guy Lectureship application and appointment process  

The William Guy Lecturers are appointed following an open call and competitive selection process. For more information, please visit our webpage on the appointment process.

History of the lecture

William Augustus Guy (1810-1885) was an early medical statistician and was extremely eminent in the field. He was closely associated with the Society for many years, including having been president 1873-1875. The Guy medals, awarded to distinguished statisticians for important work, testify to his memory. You can read more about his pioneering work in public health and medicine in Significance magazine.

One of our former honorary secretaries, Sidney Rosenbaum, discovered that Guy was a pupil at his old school, Christ’s Hospital. Sidney arranged discussions that led to the introduction of the Guy Lecture. The first Guy Lecture was given by Adrian Smith on 29 April 1999 – Statistics and statisticians: the good guy’s answer to lying figures and figuring liars. Adrian Bowman gave the second lecture on 19 May 2000 – A world of difference: a rough guide to why statisticians count. 

Adrian Bowman’s lecture was then given to many other sixth form audiences. This encouraged us to widen the scope of the Guy Lecture to be available to any school or college. 

In the past, the RSS appointed one William Guy Lecturer per year to deliver in-person talks in schools. Online engagement now offers the opportunity to reach more schools than ever before.