The annual Erwin Schrödinger Lecture takes its name from the renowned Austrian scientist, and previous speakers have included Professor Stephen Hawking of Cambridge University, the 2012 Physics Novel Laureate Professor Serge Haroche and Royal Society President Professor Sir Paul Nurse.

In “Data, Data Everywhere But Let’s Just Stop and Think”, David Hand breaks these problems down into several categories: bad data, invisible data, changing data, alternative data, and misleading data – with informative examples of each. His recommendations include careful consideration of the origin of given data; thorough sense checks; and the introduction of a module on data quality in academic degrees: