Dominick Sutton talks about how missing data happens.

Dominick Sutton is a PhD candidate in the Geospatial Data Science unit. He is researching missing data and how spatial information can be used to improve the accuracy of techniques used to replace the missing values. Missing data is a serious issue for all users of data, including those working in biomedical research, climate change, business, financial and economic analytics. It is a particular problem for users of big data and seriously limits the applicability of their models, not least because it can introduce new forms of data bias that may be especially hard to detect and address.

If missing data is present in a dataset it can results in less accurate analysis results and assessment of uncertainty, even if measures are taken to allow for these omissions. This can seriously affect the value of subsequent data uses and limits the value of big data despite its apparent large scale. Prior to undertaking his PhD Dominick was Chief Data Officer of a multinational corporation and before that Chief Economist of a small investment bank. He has Masters’ degrees in Economics, Business Administration and Data Analytics and is a Fellow and Graduate Statistician of the Royal Statistical Society.