Churchill Fellow, Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, was today announced as the recipient of the 2020 Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture for bringing key insights from the disciplines of statistics and probability vividly home to the public at large, and to key decision-makers, in entertaining and accessible ways.

Sir David, who has been a key voice on the statistics around the current Covid-19 pandemic, will be awarded a medal and a gift of £2,500 at the associated prize lecture in 2021.

The Royal Society Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture is awarded annually to the scientist or engineer whose expertise in communicating scientific ideas in lay terms is exemplary. The award is named after Michael Faraday FRS, the influential inventor and electrical pioneer who was prominent in the public communication of science and founded the Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution. Previous winners include natural historian Sir David Attenborough and astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell.