David Hand (statistician)

Hand was educated at the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton where he was awarded a PhD in 1977{{cite thesis|degree=PhD|publisher=University of Southampton|url=|doi=|title=The Classification of Incomplete Vectors|first= David John|last=Hand|date=1977|id={{EThOS|uk.bl.ethos.458058}}|website=|oclc=1116600745|hdl=}} for research supervised by {{ill|Bruce Godfrey Batchelor|qid=Q102114189}}.

Hand served as professor of statistics at the Open University from 1988 until 1999, when he moved to Imperial College London, where he is now{{when|date=June 2022}} Emeritus Professor of Mathematics. Between 2010 and 2018 he took an extended sabbatical to serve as chief scientific advisor at Winton Capital Management. He served as president of the Royal Statistical Society from 2008 to 2009, then again in 2010 after Bernard Silverman stood down.{{cite web|url=http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=486 |title=Past President |access-date=27 January 2011 |publisher=The Royal Statistical Society. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317044817/http://www.rss.org.uk/site/cms/contentviewarticle.asp?article=486 |archive-date=17 March 2012 }}

Hand has published 31 books, inter alia:

• 2001. Principles of Data Mining(with Mannila H. and Smyth P). Principles of Data Mining. MIT Press. {{ISBN|978-0262082907}}
• 2007. Measurement Theory and Practice: the World Through Quantification Measurement Theory and Practice: the World Through Quantification. Wiley,{{ISBN|978-0470685679}}
• 2014. (with Paul Allin). The Wellbeing of Nations: Meaning, Motive and Measurement. Wiley.(with Paul Allin). The Wellbeing of Nations: Meaning, Motive and Measurement. Wiley. {{ISBN|978-1-118-48957-4}}
• 2014. The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles and Rare Events Happen All the TimeThe Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles and Rare Events Happen All the Time. Farrar Straus Giroux. {{ISBN|978-0-374-17534-4}}
• 2020. From GDP to Sustainable Wellbeing: Changing Statistics or Changing Lives? 2020. (with Paul Allin) From GDP to Sustainable Wellbeing: Changing Statistics or Changing Lives? Palgrave Macmillan, {{ISBN|978-3030530846}}
• 2020. Dark Data: Why What You Don't Know MattersDark Data: Why What You Don’t Know Matters {{ISBN|978-0691182377}}

Hand has published over 300 scientific articles, inter alia:

• Hand D.J. and Henley W.E. (1997) Statistical classification methods in consumer credit scoring: a review. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 160, 523-541{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2983268 | jstor=2983268 | title=Statistical Classification Methods in Consumer Credit Scoring: A Review | last1=Hand | first1=D. J. | last2=Henley | first2=W. E. | journal=Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in Society) | year=1997 | volume=160 | issue=3 | pages=523–541 | doi=10.1111/j.1467-985X.1997.00078.x | s2cid=18547380 }}
• Hand D.J., Blunt G., Kelly M.G., and Adams N.M. (2000) Data mining for fun and profit. Statistical Science, 15, 111-131{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2676725 | jstor=2676725 | title=Data Mining for Fun and Profit | last1=Hand | first1=David J. | last2=Blunt | first2=Gordon | last3=Kelly | first3=Mark G. | last4=Adams | first4=Niall M. | journal=Statistical Science | year=2000 | volume=15 | issue=2 | pages=111–126 }}
• Hand D.J. and Yu K. (2001) Idiot's Bayes - not so stupid after all? International Statistical Review, 69, 385-398{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1403452 | jstor=1403452 | last1=Hand | first1=David J. | last2=Yu | first2=Keming | title=Idiot's Bayes: Not So Stupid after All? | journal=International Statistical Review / Revue Internationale de Statistique | year=2001 | volume=69 | issue=3 | pages=385–398 | doi=10.2307/1403452 }}
• Bolton R.J. and Hand D.J. (2002) Statistical fraud detection: a review. Statistical Science, 17, 235-255 {{cite journal | doi=10.1214/ss/1042727940 | title=Statistical Fraud Detection: A Review | year=2002 | last1=Bolton | first1=Richard J. | last2=Hand | first2=David J. | journal=Statistical Science | volume=17 | issue=3 | doi-access=free }}
• Hand D.J. (2006) Classifier technology and the illusion of progress (with discussion). Statistical Science, 21, 1-34{{cite journal | doi=10.1214/088342306000000060 | title=Classifier Technology and the Illusion of Progress | year=2006 | last1=Hand | first1=David J. | journal=Statistical Science | volume=21 | s2cid=16325617 | doi-access=free }}
• 2008. Top 10 algorithms in data miningwith Ross Quinlan, Qiang Yang, Philip S. Yu and Zhou Zhihua et al.. Knowledge and Information Systems 14.1: 1-37 {{doi|10.1007/s10115-007-0114-2}}
• Hand D.J. (2009) Measuring classifier performance: a coherent alternative to the area under the ROC curve. Machine Learning, 77, 103-123{{cite journal | doi=10.1007/s10994-009-5119-5 | title=Measuring classifier performance: A coherent alternative to the area under the ROC curve | year=2009 | last1=Hand | first1=David J. | journal=Machine Learning | volume=77 | pages=103–123 | s2cid=207211591 | doi-access=free | hdl=10044/1/18420 | hdl-access=free }}
• Hand D.J. (2018) Statistical challenges of administrative and transaction data (with discussion). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 181, 555-605{{cite journal | doi=10.1111/rssa.12315 | title=Statistical challenges of administrative and transaction data | year=2018 | last1=Hand | first1=David J. | journal=Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (Statistics in Society) | volume=181 | issue=3 | pages=555–605 | s2cid=126301517 | doi-access=free | hdl=10044/1/61527 | hdl-access=free }}

Hand has received various awards for his work, including being elected Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries in 1999, the Guy Medal in Silver of the Royal Statistical Society in 2002, the IEEE ICDM Outstanding Contributions Award in 2004, the Credit Collections and Risk Award for Contributions to the Credit Industry in 2012, the George Box Medal for Business and Industrial Statistics in 2016, and the International Federation of Classification Societies Research Medal in 2019. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to research and innovation.{{London Gazette |issue=60367 |date=29 December 2012 |page=11 |supp=y}}{{cite web | url = http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/NY2013-list.pdf | title = New Year Honours List 2013 - General List | publisher = Cabinet Office | access-date = 29 December 2012}} He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 2003.

In April 2013 until June 2021 he served on the board of the board of the UK Statistics Authority as a non-executive director{{cite web|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/120610/appointments-board-uk-statistics-authority/|title=Appointments to the Board of the UK Statistics Authority {{!}} Imperial News {{!}} Imperial College London|website=Imperial News|date=3 April 2013 |access-date=7 June 2019}} and served on the European Statistical Advisory Committee, advising the European Commission from 2016 to 2021. He chaired the Administrative Data Research Network from 2014 to 2017 and serves on many other advisory committees, including chairing the Advisory Board of the ONS's Centre for Applied Data Ethics and the National Statistician's Expert User Advisory Committee.

{{Reflist}}

{{Royal Statistical Society presidents}}

{{Guy Medal}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hand, David}}

Category:Living people

Category:1950 births

Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire

Category:People from Peterborough

Category:Presidents of the Royal Statistical Society

Category:Fellows of the British Academy

Category:Academics of the Open University

Category:Academics of Imperial College London

Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford

Category:Alumni of the University of Southampton

Category:British mathematical statisticians

Category:Computational statisticians

Category:Data miners