He has also been a news editor on the Guardian, working with the graphics team to visualize and interpret huge datasets.

In May 2013, he joined Twitter in San Francisco as the organization’s first Data Editor, working to tell stories from billions of tweets.

He was closely involved in the Guardian’s exercise to crowdsource 450,000 MP expenses records and the organization’s coverage of the Afghanistan and Iraq WikiLeaks war logs. He was also a key part of the Reading the Riots team, which investigated the causes of the 2011 England disturbances.

Previously he was the launch editor of the Guardian’s online news service and has edited the paper’s science section. He has edited three Guardian books, including How Slow Can You Waterski and The Hutton Inquiry and its Impact.

In 2012, Simon received the Royal Statistical Society’s award for statistical excellence in journalism (online category), having been commended by the Society in 2010.

His Factfile UK series of supplements won a silver medal at the Malofiej 2011 infographics awards, and the Datablog won the Newspaper Awards prize for Best Use of New Media in2011.

In 2011, Simon was named Best UK Internet Journalist by the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, and won the inaugural XCity award from City University.