The Department of Mathematics is hosting a series of colloquia, open for all to attend. On 20 January 2026, Vladimir Vovk from Royal Holloway, University of London will give a talk on  'A duality in the foundations of probability and statistics through history.'

Registration:

This talk will take place in person at King's College London in Bush Hose SE (1.05).  A reception will follow afterwards. The talk will also be streamed online via Microsoft Teams. Please click 'Get tickets' to sign up for either an In-Person Ticket or an Online Ticket. If you wish to attend the in-person event, you must select the correct ticket type.

Abstract

A duality in the foundations of probability and statistics through history

There are two complementary ways to view probability; namely, we can define and apply it in terms of counting or in terms of betting. Both ways are useful in applications of probability including statistics. I will give a historical account of these two ways, argue that they are in some sense dual to each other, and conclude with a brief review of recent work on game-theoretic statistics.

About the Speaker: 

Vladimir Vovk is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Royal Holloway, University of London, and co-director of the Centre for Reliable Machine Learning there. He obtained his PhD in June 1988 from Moscow State University. Vovk is widely recognized for founding the framework of game-theoretic probability and for co-inventing conformal prediction. His work has a marked impact across probability theory and AI.

Learn more about Vladimir Vovk on his webpage and also on Wikipedia.

Future colloquia

Please check our event series for details of upcoming speakers.