Dean L

My Passion & How I Inspire

ā€œStatistical thinking will one day be as necessary for efficient citizenship as the ability to read and writeā€ (paraphrased from H.G. Wells in the early 20th century). I firmly believe this premonition has become a reality in modern times, given the how frequently statistics in advertisements and the media influence our decisions and how many jobs are increasingly common that require some statistical thinking or data analysis skills. I have an informal teaching style, encourage questions and student participation. I avoid technical jargon and equations where possible, recognising that many students donā€™t have a strong mathematical background.

I also teach statistical programming in R and believe the best way to teach this language, particularly with those otherwise unfamiliar with programming, is to liken it to human languages. The fundamental concepts of the language are much like how we construct sentences using mainly verbs and nouns. In the spirit of H.G. Wells, I believe computer programming skills will also be as necessary as reading and writing in the future and feel privileged help train others for the new data-driven world.

My Experience

I have over 1,000 hours of classroom teaching experience from running short courses in statistics and I am recognised as a fellow of the higher education academy (HEA). My previous students are diverse including undergraduates and postgraduates within the health science discipline and working professionals from a diverse range of research fields (psychology, transport, social science, finance, etc). Most of this teaching comes from my role as a senior teaching fellow at University College London (UCL), where I have worked since 2015. During this time, I have also provided 100s of hours of one-to-one student support for research projects, and occasional private consultancy for external clients.

Subjects That I Teach

  • GRE
  • GRE - Undergraduate
  • R Programming
  • R Programming - Undergraduate
  • Research Methods
  • Research Methods - Undergraduate
  • Science
  • Science - Undergraduate
  • SPSS
  • SPSS - Undergraduate
  • Statistics
  • Statistics - Undergraduate

My Qualifications

PhD in Medical Statistics from University of York (2012-2015)

MSc in Medical Statistics from University of Leicester (2008-2009) (Merit)

BSc in Mathematics from University of Liverpool (2005-2008) (First Class Hons)

Recognised by the HEA as a Fellow ā€“ Statistics Applied to Social Sciences (2016)

My Video Introduction

Fun fact

I enjoy cycle-touring and once cycled across the whole of Spain