David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, Fellow & former RSS President

I did pure maths at Oxford until it got too difficult, and then switched to statistics, which turned out to fit me very well. I worked largely in medical statistics, particularly Bayesian methods, until getting my new job and moving into public and media engagement. My main areas of interest are statistics in society, communication with public and media, and statistical education.

I joined the Society over 40 years ago because I felt that I was part of a community and everyone else was a member. As President of the RSS, I was involved in many aspects of the Society’s work. There is a such a huge range of activities, however, that I could only touch a few elements – I am constantly surprised at the vast amount that gets done, from submitting to parliamentary inquiries to setting up online training courses.

I feel very proud to be a member of the statistical community in general and the RSS in particular. I genuinely believe that statistics is an honourable and immensely worthwhile profession, full of decent people who have a proper respect for the truth.

The RSS requires active members who want to give something to statistics and society at large. Fortunately there are many who feel this way. Long may the RSS thrive!