Mario Cortina Borja, Professor of Biostatistics / Epidemiology / Applied Statistics

I’ve always liked mathematics and data so it was easy for me to choose a career in this field. I was an undergraduate and postgraduate student at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, studying actuarial sciences, mathematics and statistics and later completed my PhD at the University of Bath. I have been working at the UCL Institute of Child Health since 2000 – the year I joined the RSS!

I joined the RSS because I strongly agree with its ethos and believe it’s important to belong to my professional society. I enjoy contributing to the Society’s objectives and have been actively involved in the General Applications (now Emerging Applications) section in the past. I am currently chairman of Significance’s editorial board and regularly contribute articles to the magazine on a variety of topics, including the geography of surnames in the UK, the survivorship of popes, the international community’s contributions to control the ebola epidemic in West Africa, birthdays, hurricanes, marathons, and James Joyce’s novels.

In addition to applied statistics and R, I also enjoy reading about the history of 19th century Mexico, visiting family and friends in England, Mexico and Northern Ireland, Sudoku (only the standard version), BBC Radio 3, and University Challenge.