Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

James Grant

@jamesagrant.bsky.social

46 followers 72 following 10 posts

www.lancaster.ac.uk

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Mar 1

Hi Bluesky 🦋 👋

I'm hoping to (re)connect with the Stats, ML/AI, and EDI in STEM/Academia communities here, so here's a cringey bio

I'm a Lecturer (Assist Prof) at Lancaster Uni, with a background in reinforcement learning theory, and interests in fairness & reliability in human-AI decision-making.

1 4

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Jul 9

Recharged after a much needed week of sun and rest ☀️🇬🇷 Even managed to clear the email backlog in a morning. 📤

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Jun 30

A great chat about all things LGBTQ+ & STEM is written up in this @lancasteruni.bsky.social blog - was really interesting to reflect on how LGBTQ+ identities have interacted with our careers, and the role of visibility and allyship in building inclusion further. www.lancaster.ac.uk/sci-tech/abo...

STEMMing the Leaky Pipeline: A “Pride in Science” special - Lancaster University

As a part of Pride month, the Research and Engagement Team in the Faculty of Science and Technology interviewed LGBTQ+ members of research and academic staff from a range of departments to get their i...

www.lancaster.ac.uk

1 2

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Jun 23

Gutted to miss this one due to holidays, but strongly recommend to those able to get to it in Edinburgh and looking forward to reading the book @kevinguyan.bsky.social 🏳️‍🌈

RSS Celebrating Diversity @rssdiversity.bsky.social · Jun 20

We are delighted to organise this @kevinguyan.bsky.social talk in Edinburgh jointly with @rssedinburgh.bsky.social
➡️Rainbow Trap: How Inclusive Statistics Still Box Us In⬅️

📅7 July
📌 @bayescentre.bsky.social
⏰6pm-7.30pm

🎫Book your place!
rss.org.uk/training-eve...

2 4

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Jun 23

New out on arXiv today: arxiv.org/abs/2506.16425

This paper on statistical properties of estimators in phylogenomics is the last from George's soon-to-be-submitted thesis. It was great to supervise as it was a wonderful example of the research being driven by George's curiosity and original ideas.

Covariance Decomposition for Distance Based Species Tree Estimation

In phylogenomics, species-tree methods must contend with two major sources of noise; stochastic gene-tree variation under the multispecies coalescent model (MSC) and finite-sequence substitutional noi...

arxiv.org

Reposted by James Grant

LGBT Foundation @lgbtfdn.bsky.social · Jun 3

Refuse to be invisible! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Now is the time to make our voices heard, sharing our experiences in the EHRC Consultation which affects LGBTQ+ people.

We've created a handy guide to help plan your response, get started now and share this post.

www.lgbt.foundation/EHRC

1 29 48

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Jun 5

Come back to me when the AI can fold the laundry 😅

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · May 3

This BBC article does a better than average job of reporting the difficulties in measuring trends conditions like autism with highly variable diagnosis rates - kudos!: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Are there more autistic people now?

Why is the number of autism diagnoses changing? And what does it mean for autistic people?

www.bbc.co.uk

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · May 2

Today is revision lecture day which means quadruple checking I go through the solutions to LAST year’s exam, not THIS year’s as I had a nightmare about last week 😂

Reposted by James Grant

Bat Krown 🦇 @katbrownwrites.com · Apr 16

I am so incredibly tired of this ongoing attack on trans people. Cis men are murdering women in plain sight. If gender-critical women turned their attention to dealing with men, women might be safe. I'm not worried about loos or changing rooms. I am worried about literally everything else.

A screengrab of the BBC website showing three stories from the past two days of men murdering women, and one from a week ago.

5 81 230

Reposted by James Grant

Rob Ford @robfordmancs.bsky.social · Apr 8

The core trilma here remains the same - the govt needs to accept one of three things: high student migration, higher domestic student fees (or higher taxes to fund universities) or university bankruptcies. Those are the only options, given where we are. Pick one.

Glen O'Hara @gsoh31.bsky.social · Apr 8

The UK government is proposing to finally finish off its universities by further tightening the terms of the graduate visa route. The stupid fools. Playing with dangers they don't even understand. www.ft.com/content/f441...

UK Home Office’s reform of graduate visas runs into opposition

[FREE TO READ] Education department at odds with plan to curb number of overseas students allowed to stay in Britain

www.ft.com

37 350 680

Reposted by James Grant

UK Research and Innovation @ukri.org · Mar 6

Today EPSRC has published an independent analysis of diversity data, by @royalstatsoc.bsky.social and input from the Alan Turing Institute.
The project investigates potential bias in the EPSRC peer review process using structured data analysis and textual analysis of reviewers’ comments and scores.

News from UK Research and Innovation @news.ukri.org · Mar 6

Independent analysis provides insights into EPSRC’s portfolio #EPSRC #AcademicSky

Independent analysis provides insights into EPSRC’s portfolio

Analysis of diversity data, including, for the first time, reviewers’ comments and scores, provides a deeper understanding of EPSRC’s portfolio.

www.ukri.org

1 5 6

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Mar 1

Outside work I'm a big fan of books, coffee, dogs, running, and general nerdy/queer fun stuff 😀

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Mar 1

I'm a statistician by training and always interested in how data-driven models and systems can be explained clearly to the public.

I'm a small part of some great EDI initiatives at the Royal Statistical Society and at Lancaster and keen to share and learn from others' inclusion expertise here.

1 2

James Grant @jamesagrant.bsky.social · Mar 1

1 4