Timandra Harkness

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Timandra Harkness
QED 20161015 159.jpg
Speaking at QEDcon in 2016
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
  • Bulmershe College
  • Open University
Occupation
  • Writer
  • presenter
  • comedian
Years active2000–present
Notable work
  • Big Data: Does Size Matter
Websitetimandraharkness.com

Timandra Harkness is a British writer, presenter and comedian.[1]

Education[]

Harkness has a BA in Film and Drama with Art from Bulmershe College and a BSc in Mathematics & Statistics from the Open University.[When?][citation needed]

Career[]

Harkness has written about technology for BBC Science Focus magazine,[2][3][4] about statistics for Significance (a popular science magazine published by the Royal Statistical Society),[5] and about motorcycles for The Daily Telegraph.[6] Her work for BBC Radio 4 includes an afternoon play,[7] documentaries,[8][9][10][11] being a roving reporter for The Human Zoo[12] and presenting FutureProofing,[13] a series about the future potential of science. She is the author of the book Big Data: Does Size Matter?[14]

In 1999 Harkness co-wrote a comedy with her mother Linda Cotterill, called No Future in Eternity, about an astronomer who shares a flat with two angels.[15] They received a grant from the Astronomer Royal for Scotland, John Campbell Brown, to perform the show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2000.[16] The show was subsequently broadcast as an afternoon play on BBC Radio 4.[7][17]

Since 2004 Harkness has collaborated with Dr Helen Pilcher, as a comedy duo named the Comedy Research Project, writing and performing stand-up shows about science.[18][19][20]

In 2012 Harkness and fellow comedian Matt Parker co-wrote a comedy show called Your Days are Numbered: The Maths of Death. They performed the show in Australia, at the Adelaide Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festival, on tour around England and in Scotland, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.[21]

Harkness returned to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019 to perform a one-woman show, called Take a Risk.[22][23]

Since 2016, Harkness has chaired the Data Debate for the Alan Turing Institute and the British Library, a series of panel discussions about big data and its implications for society.[24] She has spoken at the Hay Festival,[25][26][27] the Battle of Ideas,[28][29][30][31][32][excessive citations] TEDx,[33] The Scotsman Data Conference[34] and the Cheltenham Science Festival.[35]

Harkness is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, a founding member of their special interest group on Data Ethics[36] and a Visiting Fellow at the University of Winchester's Centre for Information Rights.[37]

Awards[]

In 1997, Harkness won a column-writing competition, organised by The Independent newspaper.[citation needed]

Publications[]

  • Big Data: Does Size Matter (2016)[14]

Radio[]

  • No Future In Eternity (2001)[7]
  • Data, Data, Everywhere (2014)[8]
  • Personality Politics (2014)[9]
  • FutureProofing (2014-present)[38]
  • Hindsight Bias (2015)[39]
  • Perfect People (2015)[12]
  • Supersense Me (2017)[10]
  • The Why Factor: Are You A Numbers Person? (2017)[40]
  • How to Disagree: A Beginner's Guide to Having Better Arguments (2018)[41][42]
  • The Infinite Monkey Cage: Big Data (2018)[43]
  • Divided Nation (2019)[11]
  • What Has Sat-Nav Done to Our Brains? (2019)[44]
  • Five Knots (2020)[45]
  • Steelmanning (2021) [46]

Comedy[]

  • The Comedy Research Project (2004)[47]
  • Your Days Are Numbered - The Maths of Death (2012)[48]
  • Brainsex (2013)[49]
  • Take A Risk (2019)[50][22][23]

References[]

  1. ^ Santos, Patricia (2019). "Science, communication and women in networks" (PDF). Women in Science. No. 1. British Council. Retrieved 2020-11-06.
  2. ^ Harkness, Timandra (2019-04-08). "Five key ideas you need to understand now if you want to be ready for the world of 2030". BBC Focus Magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  3. ^ Harkness, Timandra (2020-04-21). "How will the NHS contact-tracing app work and how could it affect my privacy?". BBC Focus Magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  4. ^ Harkness, Timandra (2020-11-11). "A level results: Why algorithms aren't making the grade". BBC Focus Magazine. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  5. ^ Harkness, Timandra (2012-02-08). "Seduced by stats?". Significance. Royal Statistical Society. 9 (1): 46–48. doi:10.1111/j.1740-9713.2012.00549.x. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  6. ^ Harkness, Timandra (2004-09-04). "Angels". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b c "No Future in Eternity". Afternoon Play. BBC. Radio 4.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Data, Data, Everywhere (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2014.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Personality Politics (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2014.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Supersense Me (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2017.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b "Divided Nation". Archive on 4. BBC. Radio 4.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b "Perfect People". The Human Zoo. BBC. Radio 4.
  13. ^ Harkness, Timandra. "What is FutureProofing?". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Stoye, Emma (2014-10-24), "Big data: does size matter?", Chemistry World, Royal Society of Chemistry, retrieved 2020-11-09
  15. ^ Pennicott, Kate (2001-07-23). "Astronomy meets angels in a divine comedy". Physics World. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  16. ^ Brown, John. "Outreach: Public Understanding of Science Work". Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  17. ^ "Afternoon Play: No Future in Eternity". BBC Genome. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  18. ^ "Five Top Things in Science - Ever (Comedy Research Project)". The Lecture List. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  19. ^ "The hidden comedy of science". BBC News. 2004-06-08. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  20. ^ "Helen Pilcher". LinedIn. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  21. ^ "Your Days are Numbered Tour Dates". Your Days Are Numbered. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  22. ^ Jump up to: a b Cornwell, Tim (2019-08-19). "Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019 REVIEW Timandra Harkness: Take a Risk". The Edinburgh Reporter. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  23. ^ Jump up to: a b Heald, Steve (2019-08-07). "Timandra Harkness – Edinburgh Fringe Festival". The Plus Ones. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  24. ^ Wood, Beth. "New Data Debates series with the British Library: Smart cities and fake news". The Alan Turing Institute. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  25. ^ "Big Data". Hay Festival. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  26. ^ "Creators and Consumers: What's our role in responsibly designing the future?". Hay Festival. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  27. ^ "Can Artificial Intelligence Be Ethical?". Hay Festival. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  28. ^ "Was it Big Data wot won it? Political campaigning today". Battle of Ideas. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  29. ^ "From AI to Big Data: can technology save the NHS?". Battle of Ideas. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  30. ^ "Rage against the machines: is automation a threat to jobs?". Battle of Ideas. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  31. ^ "If data runs the world, who is in control?". Battle of Ideas. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  32. ^ "Automatic lovers: should we be worried about sex robots?". Battle of Ideas. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  33. ^ Timandra Harkness (2017-06-23). What is Knowledge in the Age of Big Data? (Presentation). London, England: TEDx Talks.
  34. ^ Lee, David (2020-10-29). "World-leading experts headline Scotsman data conference on combatting Covid-19". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  35. ^ "Cheltenham Science Festival Programme Announced". Cheltenham Festivals. 2018-04-18. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  36. ^ "Data Ethics". Royal Statistical Society. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  37. ^ "Centre for Information Rights". University of Winchester. Retrieved 2020-11-12.
  38. ^ FutureProofing (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2014.
  39. ^ "Hindsight Bias". The Human Zoo. BBC. Radio 4.
  40. ^ "Are You A Numbers Person?". The Why Factor. BBC. Radio 4.
  41. ^ How to Disagree: A Beginner's Guide to Having Better Arguments (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2018.
  42. ^ How to Disagree: A Beginner's Guide to Having Better Arguments (Audio book). BBC Digital Audio. 2018.
  43. ^ "Big Data". The Infinite Monkey Cage. BBC. Radio 4.
  44. ^ "What Has Sat-Nav Done to Our Brains?". Seriously... BBC. Radio 4.
  45. ^ Five Knots (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2020.
  46. ^ Steelmanning (Radio broadcast). BBC Radio 4. 2021.
  47. ^ Day, Elizabeth (2004-06-13). "Scientists are serious about having a laugh". Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  48. ^ Moorhead, Rosy (2012-02-10). "Timandra Harkness on her new comedy show Your Days are Numbered: The Maths of Death". Retrieved 2020-11-09.
  49. ^ Ranscombe, Peter (2013), "BrainSex" (PDF), The Lancet (Nov), doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(13)70219-9, retrieved 2020-11-09
  50. ^ Timandra Harkness (2019). "Take A Risk" (Podcast).
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