Sound Tracks Podcast

Liberty Vittert

The statistician who’s cooked up a career as an academic, TV chef, author and political commentator

Degree: PhD Statistics (2016)

Statistician, political commentator, television chef and author – Liberty Vittert has developed so many strands to her career. In this episode, we travelled to Boston to meet Liberty and to find out how.

Liberty is a passionate believer that data can be used for good – and tells us about how the work she has done on the Board of USA for UNHCR, the north American arm of the of Refugee Agency has done just that.

Liberty’s research, as a PhD student at UofG, focused on facial shape analysis with Dr Adrian Bowman, who she describes as the ‘greatest supervisor on the planet’. During her time at Glasgow Liberty hosted an STV cookery show and amongst her many accolades was named one of the "Coolest People in Scotland" by the Herald in 2018!

Hear Liberty’s thoughts on the importance of learning to use maths, just like we learn to read, and how we can encourage more women and girls to study and work in STEM. Liberty explains how – no matter your background – there are so many opportunities to train and work in stats and data analysis.

Liberty also shares awesome advice on finding volunteering opportunities that match your skills and interests and building connections as a PhD student and early career academic.

Listen out for a special cameo from Henry – Liberty’s rescue dog who she adopted in Glasgow and now lives with her in Boston! He is officially the first guest pet to appear on Sound Tracks.

What's your soundtrack?

With - Aine O'Brien, UofG PhD student in Planetary Science who has 3 space-tastic themed songs, now added to the UofG SoundTracks Spotify playlist!