Nigel John Mytton Hawkes CBE, scientist, leading health journalist and author of books on technology for teenagers, died suddenly from a heart attack, aged 78 years, on 8 October 2021. Nigel was born in Fulmer (south Buckinghamshire) on 1 September 1943. He attended Sedburgh School (Cumbria) before going up to Oxford where he graduated in 1966 with a degree in metallurgy.

Hawkes reported on science, health and international affairs in a career that began on the staff of Nature and included long spells at The Observer (1972–90) and The Times (1990–2008) where he became Health Editor in 2000; and, for many years, he was a columnist for the British Medical Journal.

Nigel was appointed CBE in 1998 for services to the newspaper industry and science—modestly, he supposed that the government wanted a better public understanding of science and had decided they might as well recognise a journalist who had spent his career doing it! Nigel was the Medical Journalists Association Health Writer of the Year in 2007; and became a proactive fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in 2010.

His commitment to high standards in statistical and science reporting were known to Professor Sheila Bird, Medical Research Council biostatistician and Royal Statistical Society Vice-President for External Affairs, through her contributions to stories he wrote as Health Editor of The Times. In March 2006, Bird was alarmed by an item on Radio 4’s TODAY programme: six healthy volunteers had been admitted to intensive care at Northwick Park Hospital during a first-in-man study of the monoclonal antibody TGN1412. ‘Their admission was being described as “rare”’, recalls Bird. She had no hesitation in phoning Nigel to explain that there had to be a serious fault in the study’s design for six to be admitted: one would be rare, six was unprecedented. Nigel ran days of copy raising questions about the TGN1412 study-protocol that had been approved by the UK’s regulator. The Royal Statistical Society established a Working Party to address Statistical Issues in First-in-Man Studies, in which Nigel’s investigative role is recounted; and referenced. The Working Party’s key design-recommendations, including the need for an adequate time interval between the dosing of successive healthy volunteers, were shared with the government-appointed Expert Group on Phase One Clinical Trials and feature in its final report in December 2006.

After Nigel left The Times, Lord Lipsey and he worked tirelessly to set up ‘Straight Statistics’, a campaign established by journalists and statisticians for honest presentation and use of statistical data by government, media and others. With support from the Royal Statistical Society, they secured funding from the Nuffield Foundation for Nigel’s directorship of Straight Statistics (2009–12). Its aim was straightforward: ‘By exposing bad practice and rewarding good, we aim to restore public confidence in statistics’—very much Nigel’s raison d’etre as a journalist.

Straight Statistics carried statistical stories which ran the gamut of policy from war through education, crime and justice to drugs-related deaths and alcohol to flu (H1N1) and healthcare. Prof Bird said: ‘The content was written marvellously by Nigel himself and edited by him for statistician-contributors for whom his editing was a privileged education’. RSS Past-President Prof Sir David Spiegelhalter also worked with Nigel on Straight Statistics and commented: ‘I had such huge respect for his unique mixture of personal gentleness and incisive writing’.

One of Nigel’s proudest claims was that he managed to run Straight Statistics for 4 years—on 2 years’ funding. The work is carried forward by Full Fact.

Nigel is survived by his wife, Jo; their children Georgina, Will and Alex; and nine grandchildren.

Sheila M. Bird, formerly Programme Leader, MRC Biostatistics Unit, CAMBRIDGE CB2 0SR

Jenny Hope, Medical Correspondent for Daily Mail and Partner at RNA Media Training.

Nigel John Mytton Hawkes CBE，科学家、领先的健康记者和青少年技术书籍的作者，于 2021 年 10 月 8 日因心脏病突发去世，享年 78 岁。Nigel 于 1943 年 9 月 1 日出生在富尔默（南白金汉郡）。在前往牛津大学之前，他曾就读于塞德堡学校（坎布里亚郡），并于 1966 年毕业并获得冶金学位。

霍克斯报道科学、健康和国际事务，他的职业生涯始于《自然》杂志，并曾在《观察家报》（1972-90 年）和《泰晤士报》（1990-2008 年）长期任职，并于 2000 年成为健康编辑；并且，多年来，他一直是英国医学杂志的专栏作家。

Nigel 于 1998 年被任命为 CBE，为报业和科学提供服务——谦虚地说，他认为政府希望公众对科学有更好的理解，并决定他们不妨承认一位在他的职业生涯中从事科学工作的记者！Nigel 是 2007 年医学记者协会年度健康作家；并于 2010 年成为皇家统计学会的积极研究员。

医学研究委员会生物统计学家兼皇家统计学会对外事务副会长希拉·伯德教授知道他对统计和科学报告的高标准的承诺，通过她对他作为《泰晤士报》健康编辑撰写的故事的贡献. 2006 年 3 月，伯德对第 4 台“今日”节目中的一个项目感到震惊：在对单克隆抗体 TGN1412 进行首次人体研究期间，六名健康志愿者被送入诺斯威克公园医院的重症监护室。伯德回忆说，他们的录取被描述为“罕见”。她毫不犹豫地打电话给奈杰尔，解释说研究设计中必须有一个严重的错误才能让六个人被录取：一个是罕见的，六个是史无前例的。Nigel 连续数天提出对英国监管机构批准的 TGN1412 研究方案的质疑。皇家统计学会成立了一个工作组来解决首次研究中的统计问题，其中讲述了奈杰尔的调查角色；并被引用。工作组的关键设计建议，

奈杰尔离开《泰晤士报》后，利普西勋爵和他不知疲倦地建立了“Straight Statistics”，这是由记者和统计学家发起的一项运动，旨在让政府、媒体和其他人诚实地展示和使用统计数据。在皇家统计学会的支持下，他们从纳菲尔德基金会获得了奈杰尔直接统计(2009-12) 的资助。它的目标很简单：“通过揭露不良做法并奖励好的做法，我们旨在恢复公众对统计数据的信心”——这正是奈杰尔作为记者存在的理由。

Straight Statistics提供了从战争到教育、犯罪和司法、与毒品相关的死亡和酒精到流感 (H1N1) 和医疗保健等一系列政策的统计故事。伯德教授说：“内容由奈杰尔本人撰写，并由他为统计学家撰稿人编辑，他的编辑对他们来说是一种特权教育”。RSS 前任主席 David Spiegelhalter 爵士教授也曾与 Nigel 一起研究Straight Statistics并评论说：“我非常尊重他独特的个人温柔和精辟写作的结合”。

Nigel 最引以为豪的一项声明是，他成功地运行了 4 年的Straight Statistics——在 2 年的资金支持下。这项工作由Full Fact推进。

奈杰尔的妻子乔幸存下来；他们的孩子乔治娜、威尔和亚历克斯；和九个孙子。

Sheila M. Bird，前任项目负责人，MRC 生物统计学部门，剑桥 CB2 0SR

Jenny Hope，每日邮报的医学记者，RNA 媒体培训的合伙人。