I am a social data scientist and  PhD candidate in the Department of Methodology at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), where my research focuses on the application of black-box machine learning methods to inference and explanation tasks. I’m specifically interested in the tension between explanation, inference and prediction in the context of ML strategies and seek to understand how we can leverage the predictive fidelity of advanced ML while maintaining the explanatory and inferential qualities of traditional parametric methods.

Substantively, I am a political scientist and conflict researcher. My interests are broad, ranging from elections to social movements and conflict. Currently, my research focuses on measuring the effects of public mobilisations on levels of violence, non-state actor political communication strategy during and after intra-state conflict, and exploring the potential for using black-box ML for inference. 

I have occupied roles in data science and advanced analytics across multiple high-impact industries for a number of years (check my C.V.) and I always endeavour to meld creativity with simplicity when faced with an problem to solve.

If you think you have an idea or project where my methodological expertise might be of use, or where our disciplinary curiosities might overlap, please feel free to get in touch, and hopefully I can get involved! 

Please note: I do my absolute best to stay on top of emails, but occasionally one slips through the net! I’m grateful for your patience and understanding, and if you need to get in touch and I have failed to respond, please feel free to email again!

Last year's trip
Pretending I can see

Aside from work, I’m actually a real human being!

I’m a friend, a son, and a hoggish reader of fiction, history, philosophy and my own nonsense; 

I believe in passion, compassion, and, most importantly, laughing as much and as often as one can;

I am a lover  of Gloucester rugby and England cricket, and I spend countless hours playing and watching sport;

I am obsessed with music. I love attending gigs and collecting vinyl across a broad range of genres, from U.K. grime, to Aussie surf rock, to classical music and almost everything in between;

I am also a big fan of hiking through mountains with friends or lying on a beach and swimming in oceans for the (very) short time that my paleness allows;

In terms of politics, the main issues I’m interested in are British electoral reform and the use of intelligence in foreign and domestic affairs.