The Statistical Consultant in Action by Cambridge University Press

by David J. Hand

Twelve contributions explore statistical consultancy problems and solutions in a wide range of areas, including science, medicine, industry, marketing and finance.

Hardcover

First published March 5, 1987

About the author

David J. Hand is Senior Research Investigator and Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Imperial College, London, and Chief Scientific Advisor to Winton Capital Management. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, and a recipient of the Guy Medal of the Royal Statistical Society. He has served (twice) as President of the Royal Statistical Society, and is on the Board of the UK Statistics Authority. He has published 300 scientific papers and 25 books: his next book, The Improbability Principle, is due out in February 2014. He has broad research interests in areas including classification, data mining, anomaly detection, and the foundations of statistics. His applications interests include psychology, physics, and the retail credit industry - he and his research group won the 2012 Credit Collections and Risk Award for Contributions to the Credit Industry. He was made OBE for services to research and innovation in 2013.

Reviews

[Jerzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first two chapters are pretty decent explorations of what it's like to be a statistician (both the joys and frustrations). But the rest of it consists of case studies that seem to grapple mostly with the specific statistical techniques applied, not with how the statisticians interacted with their clients and research team. I found Boen and Zahn's The Human Side of Statistical Consulting more broadly interesting and helpful.