Let’s Talk Academia with Professor Richard Samworth

Statistical challenges of big data

St John’s College academics have come together to keep the alumni community connected over this uncertain period of our lives.

Grab a drink and join them for a series of relaxed online conversations about their areas of expertise and research!

This series of online events aims to provide Johnians with a positive and supportive platform for social interaction and intellectual exchange. The programme will be updated regularly, so please keep an eye on the events programme, your email and Johnian Hub for speaker announcements.

Richard Samworth

Professor Richard Samworth obtained his PhD in Statistics from the University of Cambridge in 2004, and after a Research Fellowship at St John’s College, joined the Statistical Laboratory as a Lecturer in 2005. Professor Samworth subsequently became a Reader (2010) and Professor of Statistics (2013), and remains a Fellow of St John’s. Richard Samworth’s main research interests are in nonparametric and high-dimensional statistics. Particular topics include shape-constrained density and other nonparametric function estimation problems, nonparametric classification, clustering and regression, Independent Component Analysis, the bootstrap and high-dimensional variable selection problems.

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How to take the most out of virtual events

Find a quiet, private space

It’s important to find a quiet space to listen to the talk in order not to be disruptive to others while your microphone is on.

Always mute your microphone if you’re not speaking

This ensures you enter the talk quietly and that any background noises that could be distracting to the speaker and other participants are now inaudible. To “mute” yourself, click the “Mute” button (microphone). A red slash will appear over the microphone icon indicating that your audio is now off.

Raise your hand

During the Q&A session, click on the icon labelled “Participants” at the bottom centre of your PC or Mac screen. At the bottom of the window on the right side of the screen, click the button labelled “Raise Hand.” Your digital hand is now raised, and the moderator will tell you when it’s your turn to ask your question.