Researching David Lyon

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Lyon received Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in social science and history at the University of Bradford in Yorkshire, England, fuelling a fascination with driving forces behind and social consequences of some major transformations of the modern world.

Best known internationally for his work in surveillance studies, Lyon defines surveillance as the "operations and experiences of gathering and analyzing personal data for influence, entitlement or management." As well, he has developed key concepts in the field, such as "social sorting". Lyon has also taught and researched in the areas of information society, globalization, secularization, and postmodernity. He is author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 28 books. His books have been translated into 16 languages.

He was a founding editor of the journal Surveillance & Society, is an associate editor of The Information Society, and is on the international editorial board of a number of other academic journals. Since 2000 Lyon has led a series of team projects; currently, "Big Data Surveillance" (2015–2020). He is also on the international advisory boards of other major projects in surveillance studies.

He has held visiting appointments in a number of universities including Auckland, Bir Zeit, Edinburgh, Leeds, Melbourne, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, the Centre for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris. Lyon has also encouraged surveillance research initiatives and groups around the world, especially in Israel/Palestine and the Middle East, Japan, and Latin America.

Lyon made his debut for Cambridgeshire in the 1965 Minor Counties Championship against Bedfordshire. From 1965 to 1972, he represented the county in 15 Minor Counties matches, with his final appearance coming against Bedfordshire.

Lyon also represented Cambridgeshire in a single List A cricket match against Buckinghamshire in the 1972 Gillette Cup. In his only List-A match, he took a single wicket at with figures of 1/44.

His brother, Andrew, played List A cricket for Buckinghamshire and Middlesex.

He was born in Benton, Alabama, the son of a doctor. In 1875 he received his AB from Howard College in Marion Alabama. (Howard is now Samford University and located in Birmingham, Alabama).. He studied at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary under Crawford Howell Toy, and went to Germany, where he married Tosca Woehler (d. 1904) and received his PhD from the University of Leipzig in 1882, in the study of Syriac.

He occupied the Hollis Chair at Harvard Divinity School from 1882 to 1910, when he assumed the Hancock professorship of Hebrew and other Oriental languages. Six years after Tosca Woehler's death (1904) he married Mabel E. Harris (d. 1931). He was the founding curator of the Semitic Museum. He retired from Harvard in 1921.

David Gordon Lyon kept a diary for over 30 years of his life. All of the diaries are now digitized and soon will be transcribed into a human and machine-readable form. A goldmine of information about his times, the history of Harvard University and the field of Assyriology.

He is the son of Geoff Lyon the former Wigan RLFC great who played at Wigan from 1959 to 1969. David became a British Lion when he represented Great Britain Rugby League on the 1990 tour to PNG & NZ as a player and then again as assistant coach of the 2006 Great Britain touring team to Australia for the Tri nations. David was selected to represent Lancashire in the 1991 War or the Roses. He switched to rugby union in 1996 when the game went professional playing for Orrell as a centre until 1999. He Captained the side in the first year of the professional premiership and lead them to Lancashire Cup glory. He was selected to play for The North of England v NZ All Blacks.

Once his playing days were over David went into coaching and was Head junior coach at both St Helens and Wigan Warriors. He was assistant coach to his ex teammate Mike Gregory in 2002 when they created history by coaching England Academy to the first ever victory over Australian Schoolboys on British soil. He then took over as Head coach of England Academy in 2004 and lead them to create more history on the tour to NZ and Australia by beating Australian Schoolboys for the first time ever on Australian soil.

David then joined Brian Noble as his assistant coach to Great Britain Rugby League and was part of the 2006 Tri Nations in Australia and NZ where Great Britain beat Australia for the first time in 30 years in Sydney, Australia.

He is currently the Assistant Director for Environment and Housing at Wigan Council.