Timandra Harkness is a British writer, presenter and comedian.

Education

Harkness has a BA in Film and Drama with Art from

Bulmershe College Bulmershe College was an education institution in the Reading, Berkshire, Reading suburb of Woodley, Berkshire, Woodley, in the English county of Berkshire. Historically, Bulmershe has been the name of a Manorialism, manor and of two quite dis ...

and a BSc in Mathematics & Statistics from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

, awarded in 2017.

Career

Harkness has written about technology for ''

BBC Science Focus ''BBC Science Focus'' (previously ''BBC Focus'') is a British monthly magazine about science and technology published in Bristol, UK by Immediate Media Company. Edited by Daniel Bennett, it covers all aspects of science and technology and is writ ...

'' magazine, about statistics for '' Significance'' (a popular science magazine published by the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

), and about motorcycles for ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

''. Her work for

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

includes an afternoon play, documentaries, being a roving reporter for ''The Human Zoo'' and presenting ''FutureProofing'', a series about the future potential of science. She is the author of the book ''Big Data: Does Size Matter?'' 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. They received a grant from the

Astronomer Royal for Scotland Astronomer Royal for Scotland was the title of the director of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh until 1995. It has since been an honorary title. Astronomers Royal for Scotland See also * Edinburgh Astronomical Institution * City Observatory * R ...

John Campbell Brown John Campbell Brown (4 February 1947 – 16 November 2019) was a Scottish astronomer who worked primarily in solar physics. He held the posts of Astronomer Royal for Scotland, the Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow, a ...

, to perform the show at the ''

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

'' in 2000. The show was subsequently broadcast as an afternoon play on BBC Radio 4. 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. In 2012 Harkness and fellow comedian

Matt Parker Matthew Thomas Parker (born 22 December 1980) is an Australian recreational mathematician, author, comedian, YouTube personality and science communicator based in the United Kingdom. His book ''Humble Pi'' was the first maths book in the UK to ...

co-wrote a comedy show called ''Your Days are Numbered: The Maths of Death''. They performed the show in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, at the ''

Adelaide Fringe The Adelaide Fringe, formerly Adelaide Fringe Festival, is the world's second-largest annual arts festival (after the Edinburgh Festival Fringe), held in the South Australian capital of Adelaide. Between mid-February and mid-March each year, i ...

'' and ''

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the second-largest international comedy festival in the world. Established in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typicall ...

'', on tour around

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, at the ''

''. Harkness returned to the ''Edinburgh Festival Fringe'' in 2019 to perform a one-woman show, called ''Take a Risk''. Since 2016, Harkness has chaired the ''Data Debate'' for the

Alan Turing Institute The Alan Turing Institute is the United Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, founded in 2015 and largely funded by the UK government. It is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computing ...

and the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

, a series of panel discussions about big data and its implications for society. She has spoken at the ''

Hay Festival The Hay Festival of Literature & Arts, better known as the Hay Festival ( cy, Gŵyl Y Gelli), is an annual literature festival held in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales, for 10 days from May to June. Devised by Norman, Rhoda and Peter Florence in 1988, t ...

'', the ''Battle of Ideas'', ''

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

'', ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

Data Conference'' and the ''

Cheltenham Science Festival Cheltenham Science Festival is one of the UK's leading science festivals, and is part of Cheltenham Festivals: also responsible for the Jazz, Music and Literature Festivals that run every year. The 2018 Cheltenham Science Festival (6–11 June) ...

''. Harkness is a Fellow of the

, a founding member of their special interest group on Data Ethics and a visiting fellow at the

University of Winchester , mottoeng = Wisdom and Knowledge , established = 1840 - Winchester Diocesan Training School1847 - Winchester Training College1928 - King Alfred's College2005 - University of Winchester , type = Public research university ...

's Centre for Information Rights.

Awards

In 1997, Harkness won a column-writing competition, organised by ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper.

Publications

* ''Big Data: Does Size Matter'' (2016)

Radio

* ''No Future In Eternity'' (2001) * ''Data, Data, Everywhere'' (2014) * ''Personality Politics'' (2014) * ''FutureProofing'' (2014–present) * ''Hindsight Bias'' (2015) * ''Perfect People'' (2015) * ''Supersense Me'' (2017) * ''The Why Factor: Are You A Numbers Person?'' (2017) * ''How to Disagree: A Beginner's Guide to Having Better Arguments'' (2018) * ''The Infinite Monkey Cage: Big Data'' (2018) * ''Divided Nation'' (2019) * ''What Has Sat-Nav Done to Our Brains?'' (2019) * ''Five Knots'' (2020) * ''Steelmanning'' (2021)

Comedy

* ''The Comedy Research Project'' (2004) * ''Your Days Are Numbered - The Maths of Death'' (2012) * ''Brainsex'' (2013) * ''Take A Risk'' (2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harkness, Timandra Living people Data scientists Women data scientists English comedians 21st-century English comedians English women comedians English comedy writers English radio presenters Alumni of the Open University Year of birth missing (living people)