[3] He received a degree in mathematics from Bristol University in 1991, and a master's degree in statistics from the University of Kent.
He received his PhD at Cambridge; his supervisor was Gareth Roberts.
[5] He is a specialist in Markov chain Monte Carlo and applied statistical methods.
He is one of the founding directors[6] of the National Centre for Statistical Ecology[7] which was set up in 2005.
He left Cambridge in 2006 to become Director of Research for ATASS Sports and is now executive director of Select Statistical Services Ltd a statistical consultancy firm based in Exeter and the Director of the Exeter Initiative for Statistics and its Applications[8]