ICR302: Professor David Hand, The Improbability Principle

Why is it that incredibly unlikely things actually happen quite regularly and why should we, in fact, expect such things to happen? 

My guest on the podcast today is Professor David Hand and we're talking about his book, The Improbability Principle.

If you're interested in coincidences, probability or gambling, this conversation with eminent statistician David Hand is especially for you. 

David has a long and impressive bio. He's Senior Research Investigator and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London. 

He's also Chief Scientific Advisor to Winton Capital Management, which is where we connected.

David 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. 

David is a prolific academic, having published 300 scientific papers and 29 books, including Principles of Data Mining, Information Generation, Measurement Theory and Practice, The Wellbeing of Nations, and The Improbability Principle, the subject of our conversation today. 

He's recipient of the Guy Medal of the Royal Statistical Society, the George Box Medal and, in 2013, was made OBE for services to research and innovation.

Here's my conversation with Professor David Hand, author of The Improbability Principle, in episode 302 of Informed Choice Radio.