About

I am a political scientist, applied data scientist and survey researcher.

As the Director, of Data Science in the Public Affairs and Polling team at survey research firm YouGov, I am responsible for complex, often high profile projects for clients engaged in political activities and related work across the region, and other custom research.

I research how the public thinks about issues, organisations and events, and what influences their beliefs and actions, design instruments to measure and track behaviours and attitudes, and identify ways to engage with the public. I apply innovative data science methods to political, policy, academic and industry research.

Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to work with political campaigns, NGOs, trade unions and corporate clients, providing them with the data needed to develop strategy and make well-informed decisions.  This includes the 2019 and 2022 federal Labor election campaigns.

I regularly engage in public discussions on voter attitudes and behaviours. My research has appeared in a range of academic publications (see some examples of my published research), and I have authored articles on and been interviewed about these topics for international and Australian media outlets (see media coverage).

Prior to working at YouGov, I was a lecturer of political science at the University of Sydney (2017-2022). I taught politics at the United States United States Studies Centre and occasionally in the Department of Government, as well as data science in the Faculty of Engineering. I also coordinated the public opinion research program at the United States Studies Centre, where we ran regular surveys in the United States and Australia. I was also chief investigator of the 2019 and 2022 Cooperative Australian Election Surveys. With samples of more than 7,000 respondents (2019) and 6,800 (2022), these are two of the largest academic election surveys run in Australia. 

I remain affiliated with the University of Sydney. I am an honorary associate with the US Studies Centre, and I continue to teach data science in the Faculty of Engineering.

I also run occasional short courses and master classes with the Australian Consortium for Social & Political Research: Data Analysis in R, Spatial Analysis in R, and The Art of Survey Writing.

I have a PhD in political science from Monash University, and have previously worked at the University of Melbourne and Monash.

For more information, see my profile page on the United States Studies Centre website, and my CV (disclaimer: this needs a little updating).