Introducing Evan Baker

I’m pretty excited to work at the Hub for Quantitative Modelling in Healthcare.
I did a maths degree way back mostly as a boring logical decision because I was good at maths and it had reasonably good job prospects. I did fine at university but it wasn’t exactly thrilling, and that made me rethink my generic career plans. One thing I did discover during my undergraduate was that statistics is actually pretty fun (which surprised me, because it’s boring as can be when taught badly). Wanting to become a better statistician, and wanting to tackle interesting problems, a PhD in statistics seemed sensible.

With my PhD I worked in “Uncertainty Quantification”, which is a field aiming to be the statistical bridge between complex scientific numerical models and the real world. I’ve been able to develop new techniques and ideas during my PhD, and I’m very happy to have a nuanced discussion about some technical or philosophical detail, but that’s not exactly what drew me to statistics in the first place. What I like about statistics is that it’s fundamentally about real data and real problems.

Going forward I want to spend less time developing new methodology or new theory, and more time on applied work and (hopefully) helping real people. The Hub for Quantitative Modelling in Healthcare seems a good place to start.

Find out more about Evan's background and current research here.