David Hand

David Hand was made a patron of Humanists UK for his contribution to human welfare and development.

Eminent statistician

[caption id="attachment_56861" align="alignright" width="330"] Photo: Vera de Kok.[/caption]

David Hand is Senior Research Investigator and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has served twice as President of the Royal Statistical Society.  He has published extensively throughout his career, having 300 scientific papers and 28 books to his name, including the Very Short Introduction to Statistics. In 2002 he was awarded the Guy Medal of the Royal Statistical Society, and in 2016 he was awarded the George Box Medal in 2016. In 2013 he was made OBE for services to research and innovation.

David’s statistical work has helped resolve philosophical quandaries that have plagued philosophers for centuries. His extensive writing on improbability expounds the statistical theory behind why things some people call ‘miracles’ actually happen all the time without the need for divine intervention.

Notable publications

- Allin P. and Hand D.J. (2014) The Wellbeing of Nations: Meaning, Motive, and Measurement. Wiley.
- Hand D.J. (2014) The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
- Hand D.J. (2007) Information Generation: How Data Rule Our World. OneWorld Publications.

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