Nicholas J Radcliffe

Nicholas Radcliffe is a consultant specializing in predictive modeling and stochastic optimization. He is best known for developing forma analysis, a theory of representation for genetic algorithms, and uplift modeling, a novel satistical approach to predictive modeling as it applies in marketing optimization.

After gaining a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics at Edinburgh University, he joined the newly forming Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre in 1990, where he led a group that used high-performance computing to tackle business and commercial problems. In 1995, with three colleagues he founded Quadstone Limited, a VC-backed company that built the Decisionhouse suite of analytical and visual marketing tools for large-scale data analysis. He served as CTO of Quadstone until 2007, when he left to form Stochastic Solutions Limited, a consulting firm that also develops and markets the Artists suite of analytical software. Radcliffe also serves as a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh, attached to the Operational Research Group, and has published numerous scientific and technical papers as well as the bookSustainability: A Systems Approach, written with Anthony Clayton for WWF (the former World-Wide Fund for Nature).

Radcliffe's connection with Fluidinfo dates back to the late 1980's when he and Fluidinfo's founder, Terry Jones, both researched genetic algorithms, sharing a common interest in representation issues. Radcliffe has been a friend of and advisor to the Fluidinfo company since its inception. Radcliffe wrote the open-source Fluidinfo Shell (Fish) software for interfacing with Fluidinfo, writes a blog, About Tag, that discusses representation issues as they affect Fluidinfo, and maintains several web services for accessing Fluidinfo. He also writes a separate blog on analytical marketing, The Scientific Marketer.