Profile

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James Bentham

Curriculum Vitae

  • Education:

    I went to Heigham Park First School, Avenue Middle School and Hewett School in Norwich. Then I went to Warwick University, Sheffield University and Imperial College

  • Qualifications:

    9 GCSEs, 1 AS level, 3 A levels, BEng, MEng, MSc, PhD

  • Work History:

    Mott MacDonald Ltd (a civil engineering company), King's College, Imperial College

  • Current Job:

    Lecturer in Statistics, University of Kent

  • Employer

    I work at the University of Kent, which is on the edge of Canterbury. I work in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science.

  • 🎄🏷️ My work relates to

  • About Me

    I live by the sea in Whitstable, and I like sport and travelling.

  • Read more

    I live in Whitstable, but am moving to Canterbury this year. I don’t have any pets at the moment. My favourite pizza is ham and pineapple, but I also like fish and chips. I love sport, especially football and cricket. I also love travelling, and am writing this in Tokyo.

  • How I Use Maths In My Job:

    I’m a statistician and I work with very large datasets. I worked on a project to find genes that cause a disease called lupus. The data for this project had almost 10,000,000,000 numbers, which we analysed using lots of computers. I’ve also worked on a project looking at how many people are overweight in every country in the world.

  • My Work

    I'm a statistician, and I work with lots of data

  • Read more

    I’m a statistician, and I work with big datasets that are related to health. I have two main interests. The first is to find out how many people are overweight, how many have diabetes and high blood pressure, and how many have high cholesterol. I do this by making statistical models for data that we have collected from around the world. My second interest is to find out which genes cause people to have diseases. I can also use statistical models to do this.

    I also spend a lot of time teaching students. These students can be first years who have just left school, or students who have been at university for several years. I also supervise research students, who are carrying out their own projects.

    We also have quite a lot of meetings, to discuss how to organise the department, and what we should teach in the future.

     

  • My Typical Day

    I get to work about 9:30am, although I read my emails on the bus. Some days I teach students about statistics, and other days I analyse data. Sometimes I have to go to meetings, which can be a bit boring! I leave work at 6pm, but sometimes do some work in the evenings as well.

  • Read more

    My days can be quite different, depending on how much teaching I need to do, and how many meetings I have. During term-time, I normally teach for 2 hours a day, but I also have to prepare the lectures, mark coursework, and answer students’ questions. I then work on my research projects. The best part of this is creating the models and analysing the data, but I also need to write papers describing the work, and I need to talk to colleagues who are working on the same projects.

  • The CHRISTMAS LECTURE related to my work:

    Lecture 1. How to get lucky from 22:00

  • My Interview

    • My favourite CHRISTMAS LECTURES memory is:

      I'm only just starting!

      How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

      Energetic, friendly, hard-working

      What or who inspired you to follow your career?

      I didn't know what to do after leaving civil engineering, so I took a chance on statistics!

      What's your favourite use for maths in everyday life?

      Maths is everywhere!

      What did you think about Maths when you were in school?

      It was my favourite subject

      What did you want to be after you left school?

      Like a lot of people, I wasn't sure

      Were you ever in trouble at school?

      No, I was good at school!

      If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

      Travel writer

      Who is your favourite singer or band?

      The Smiths

      What's your favourite food?

      Pizza

      What is the most fun thing you've done?

      I went to Cameroon a couple of years ago, which was amazing

      Tell us a joke.

      Two cakes were sitting in an oven. One turned to the other and said, “Wow, it’s pretty hot in here.” The other one shouted, “Wow, a talking cake!”

Questions answered by James

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