Dr David Wishart
BSc, PhD, CStat, CEng, CITP, FBCS, FSS
Honorary Research Fellow
Contact details
Tel: +44 (0)131 337 1448
Fax: +44 (0)1334 46 2812
Biography
David Wishart has been an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences and the School of Management since 1998. He held previous research and management posts in higher education and the civil service. He was a Statistician in H M Treasury in 1970-75; Director of Statistics and Assistant Secretary at the Scottish Office until 1995; and has been Technical Director of Clustan Ltd since 1995.
After graduating at St Andrews with a PhD on Numerical Taxonomy in 1970 he held a post-doctoral research fellowship at the Department of Statistics, University College London. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society since 1973, and served as Vice President 1986-89. In 1986 he won a RIPA-HAY Prize for Managerial Innovation for introducing the Scottish National Certificate. For his work on the Scotch Whisky Industry, David was admitted to the Keepers of the Quaich in 2006, a society founded by the leading Scotch whisky distillers to honour those who have made a significant contribution to Scotch whisky. In 2010, Dr Wishart was elected President of the British Classification Society, and he is co-Chair of the International Classification Conference 2011 - www.st-andrews.ac.uk/icc2011.
Research Specialisms
Numerical Classification and the Scotch Whisky Industry.
Dr Wishart is the author of Clustan, a computer system for cluster analysis used widely in scientific, social science and business applications. His application of Clustan to a market segmentation of the Scotch Whisky Industry led to the publication in 2002 of his book Whisky Classified: Choosing Single Malts by Flavour. Since then, he has published widely on the technical aspects of whisky and presented his research to scientific conferences, seminars and whisky festivals around the world. Whisky Classified was revised in 2012 and is now available in 8 language editions.
Further information is at clustan.com and whiskyclassified.com
Publications and Personal Webpage
Dr Wishart's publications are listed at: www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~dw4
Tartan of the School of Management
Communication, Persuasion, and Courage
In July 2007, Dr Wishart completed a design of a new corporate tartan exclusively for the staff and students of the School of Management, incorporating the colours of the University's Coat of Arms.
At the focus is the Saltire, the badge of Saint Andrew and Scotland's national flag, a white cross on an azure blue background. This gives recognition to the fact that the University of St Andrews, Scotland's First University, was founded in 1411 by Bishop Henry Wardlaw of the medieval Scottish Church and James I of Scotland.
Adjacent to the Saltire are fine black threads representing written communication, the principal medium by which managers communicate. This is followed by the gold of the mascles, for oral persuasion, and the design is completed by the red lion rampant of Scotland, for courage.
Thus, the School of Management Tartan symbolises the core skills we seek to develop in our students as future leaders, namely communication, persuasion, and courage, positioned within the Saltire of Saint Andrew.
The School of Management Tartan was registered in the International Tartan Index of the Scottish Tartans Authority in July 2007, number 7237. It is woven by Lochcarron of Scotland, our official Scottish weavers, and was officially launched on 29 October 2007.
Tartan of the Scottish Economics Society
In 2010, David also designed a new tartan for the Scottish Economics Society that honours the great Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith, born in Kirkcaldy in 1723. See www.scotecsoc.org.
University of St Andrews Press Release, 19 April 2006
'New research which will revolutionise our appreciation of single malt whisky has been released by an academic at the University of St Andrews. The study identifies twelve "cardinal flavours" which can be attributed to any malt in Scotland.'