Timandra Harkness is a science writer, broadcaster and comedian, who has been writing and performing on scientific, mathematical and statistical topics since the latter days of the 20th Century.
Timandra is a regular on BBC Radio 4, writing and presenting BBC Radio 4's FutureProofing series and documentaries such as Data, Data Everywhere, and Personality Politics. She's also resident reporter on social psychology series The Human Zoo.
Since winning the Independent newspaper's column-writing competition with a short piece on goat-borrowing, she has written for many publications including the Telegraph, Guardian, Sunday Times, Evening Standard, BBC Focus magazine, WIRED, Men's Health and Significance (the journal of the Royal Statistical Society).
After many years of performing improvised & stand up comedy, hosting cabaret, & touring with a tented circus, she formed the first comedy science double-act in the UK with neuroscientist Dr. Helen Pilcher.
Since then she has written and performed scientific and mathematical comedy from Adelaide (Australia) to Pittsburgh PA, and on BBC Radio 4.
In 2010 she co-wrote and performed Your Days Are Numbered: The Maths of Death, with stand-up mathematician Matt Parker. They performed the show to average audiences of 100.3 and 4 star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, then toured it in the UK and Australia. That led to many media appearances & a few heckles using the words 'stochastic' and 'Y axis'.
Science comedy since then includes cabaret, gameshows, and solo live show Brainsex.
As well as speaking on big data, she participates in panel discussions on a wide range of topics around our relationship with science and technology. Timandra regularly chairs events for clients including the Cheltenham Science Festival, the British Council, the Royal Geographical Society, the RSA, the Institute of Ideas, the Wellcome Collection and a Robotics conference in Moscow, among many others.
Timandra currently has 86% of a B.Sc. in Mathematics & Statistics with the Open University. That means she could calculate the chances that it'll be 100% by July 2017, if she didn't have to get on with some proper work.
