Introduction

I am Professor of Information Theory and Head of School in the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol. I am Personal Advisor for the COMPASS CDT in Computational Statistics and Data Science and help run the Centre for Doctoral Training in Communications. My book Numbercrunch is written for a general audience and I can be found on Substack and LinkedIn.

Much of my research applies Information Theory to understand limit theorems in probability and statistics. Recently this has involved discrete random variables - including transportation of measure, proofs of the Shepp-Olkin entropy concavity and monotonicity conjectures, log-Sobolev inequalities, maximum entropy, monotonicity and other problems.

I also research group testing, both in terms of practical algorithms and fundamental bounds via converse results. This has led to a recent survey monograph, published by Foundations and Trends in Communications and Information Theory.

I published a book about my older research, entitled Information Theory and the Central Limit Theorem. Here is a list of known errata. My preprints and academic links are available on this site.

I was previously Max Newman Research Fellow of the Statistical Laboratory of Cambridge University and Clayton Fellow of Christ's College Cambridge, Associate Director of the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research, Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Bristol Mathematics, Programme Director for the MSc in the Mathematics of Cybersecurity and Director of the Institute for Statistical Science.