Professor Hannah Fry

Hannah Fry is a mathematician, broadcaster and Professor for the Public Understanding of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, best known for turning complex ideas into something genuinely joyful to watch, hear and read. Her work explores the hidden patterns in human behaviour, delivered with a signature mix of sharp wit, warmth and refreshing honesty that has made her one of the most recognisable science communicators working today.

On screen, Hannah has taken audiences everywhere from the front lines of artificial intelligence to the outer edges of human behaviour. The Infinite Explorer, made for National Geographic and Bloomberg Originals, follows her across six countries exploring how geography, climate, history and culture shape national identity, while AI Confidential, her BBC series, uncovers extraordinary real stories from inside the world of AI. Her ongoing Bloomberg series The Future with Hannah Fry looks at how science and technology can reshape society for the better, in step with humanity rather than at its expense; the series has won an Emmy Award for its coverage of the risks and promise of quantum computing.

Her broader television work spans Making Sense of Cancer, for which she won the Grierson Award for Best Presenter, and The Secret Genius of Modern Life, which pulls apart the science behind everyday objects from bank cards to microwaves. She's a familiar face on Have I Got News For You, and has appeared as a guest on Taskmaster and Would I Lie to You?. Earlier in her career, she fronted documentaries including City in the Sky, Magic Numbers, The Joy of Data, The Joy of Winning, Unvaccinated, and Contagion! The BBC Four Pandemic – a citizen science project simulating a UK pandemic two years before COVID-19 became a reality.

In audio, Hannah co-hosts The Rest Is Science with Michael Stevens for Goalhanger, a podcast that shot into the top of the charts on launch. She previously hosted Uncharted for BBC Radio 4, also a chart-topping series celebrated for its playful, informative storytelling around data and discovery, and continues to host The Deep Mind Podcast and co-host Curious Cases alongside Dara Ó Briain. For several years she was also a regular voice on BBC 6 Music, delivering her much-loved Maths of Life segment.

A regular contributor to The New Yorker, Hannah is also the author of Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine, winner of the Asimov Prize and shortlisted for multiple international awards. Across her broadcasting, writing and widely followed social media presence, she has built a global reputation for making mathematics feel exciting, human and accessible to absolutely everyone.
As a speaker, Hannah brings this same rare gift to the stage, translating complex scientific and mathematical ideas into stories that resonate with audiences far beyond the world of maths.

Alongside her academic position, Hannah Fry is an experienced public speaker, giving conference keynotes and bringing the joy of maths into theatres and schools. She also chairs conferences and seminars for corporate events and is a popular host for award ceremonies.

Hannah Fry's keynote presentations include:

Data And Bias
Data has an unearned aura of objectivity. Statistics can illuminate, but when collected without care, it can also exclude and discriminate. Our appetite to turn the world into something countable can force a gap between what matters and what can be measured.

With wit and warmth, Hannah Fry looks at how bias has become such a profound modern issue, how it gets amplified, the genuine harm it causes, and what we can do about it — examining how fairness can be defined, and whether it can be achieved.

What Data Can (And Can't) Tell Us About Ourselves
In the era of Big Data, we've come to believe that, with enough information, human behaviour is predictable. To a large extent, it is — and there's no shortage of terrific stories where numbers have unlocked answers to our biggest questions.

But numbers can also lead us astray. Even the best scientists have found signals in noise where none exist, missed or misread signals with dramatic consequences, and fallen into the trap of treating data as objective fact.

Hannah Fry takes the audience through some of the most important lessons science has learned in recent years, sharing extraordinary stories of what happens when things go wrong. Together we'll explore what parts of our future are truly forecastable, the power and potential of data, and where its limits lie.

The Trouble With Automation
We like to think of ourselves as rational creatures grounded in logic. The reality is different: humans are a mess of competing incentives, faulty memories and impulsive biases.

Modern data analytics is, in some sense, an attempt to automate our decision-making and iron out those flaws. But decisions driven by data have blind spots too. Humans are flawed, machines are flawed — so who should be in charge of our decisions, and who should arbitrate when neither side can be fully trusted alone?

The Joy Of Data
Hannah Fry has spent years working with data, hunting for mathematical patterns in human behaviour, and uncovering extraordinary stories written in the numbers that get to the heart of who we are.

In this optimistic talk, she shares surprising and delightful tales from the cutting edge of data science, showing how a mathematical view of what it means to be human can shape the way we design society — from dating and healthcare to catching serial killers, and everything in between.

The Winner's Handbook
Only an idiot would play chicken — driving straight at an opponent, knowing a swerve means losing. An idiotic game, yes. But not one without a winning strategy: ask a mathematician, and they'll tell you the best way to force a rival to back down is to make retreat impossible.

Welcome to game theory: the mathematics of winning. In this interactive, high-energy talk, Hannah Fry explores the surprising, counter-intuitive strategies game theory offers and the difficult questions it raises. To be a good negotiator, do you have to accept some risk of disaster? And is there always a way to get what you want?

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Clients often ask about purchasing books for giveaways and delegate packs. Below you’ll find a selection of products by Professor Hannah Fry. Click the images to view on Amazon's website. For bulk orders, please speak with your Booking Agent.