Appointments and research interests
I am an assistant professor at Michigan State University with a joint appointment in the Departments of
Forestry and Geography, and am adjunct in the
Department of Statistics & Probability. I am also a member of the interdisciplinary
Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Graduate Program faculty.
My research interests lie in developing methodologies for monitoring and modeling environmental processes, Bayesian statistics, spatial statistics, and statistical computing. A central theme in my
research is the use of hierarchical models to integrate information from disparate sources to improve inference and prediction. In terms of application
areas, my research focuses on spatial-temporal modeling of changing ecosystem components and systems.
My recent interest is in improving frameworks for modeling exposure to pollutants, climate change, and health outcomes (ecosystem and public).
Upcoming and recent courses and workshops
Biometry Workshop, November 6-8, 2013, Freising, Germany
This is a joint workshop between the "Ecology and Environment", "Bayes Methods" and "Spatial Statistics" working groups of the German Region of the International Biometric Society together with the "Forest Biometrics" unit of the German Association of Forest Research Stations. → Details
NCAR/IMAGe Next Generation Climate Data Products Workshop, July 15-19, 2013, Boulder, CO
This workshop will bring together statistical and data scientists with those modeling climate and climate impacts to share ideas on improving the creation of data products.
Workshop goals: 1) Identify data products and analytical tools needed by the climate impact research communities; 2) Explore and address challenges to creating high spatial- and temporal-resolution data products, with associated uncertainty, and; 3) Facilitate collaboration among the statistics, climate modeling, and climate impact communities, and, where appropriate, form working groups on specific topics that will persist beyond the workshop. → Details
SAMSI-NCAR Workshop on Massive Datasets in Environment and Climate, February 13-15, 2013, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO
This workshop is part of the 2012-13 Program on Statistical and Computational Methodology for Massive Datasets. The workshop will bring together researchers from the statistical and climate research communities to address challenges associated with assimilating massive environmental observation datasets and climate model outputs. → Details
SAMSI-SAVI Workshop on Environmental Statistics, March 4 - 6, 2013, Research Triangle Park, NC
This will be the first workshop held at SAMSI under the SAMSI-SAVI program that is joint with several Indian mathematical and statistical institutes. The objective of the workshop is to establish common research interests within the field of environmental statistics. → Details
International Workshop on Spatio-Temporal Modelling, September 12 - 14, 2012, Guimarães, Portugal
The Research Centre of Mathematics, Minho University, will host the VI International Workshop on Spatio-Temporal Modeling (METMAVI). The scientific program hosts invited and contributed sessions covering topics on the latest in theory, methods and applications.→ Details
GEOMED, October 20 - 22, 2011, Victoria, BC, Canada
GEOMED 2011 is the 7-th international, interdisciplinary conference on spatial statistics and geomedical systems. GEOMED brings together statisticians, geographers, epidemiologists, computer scientists, and public health professionals to discuss methods of spatial analysis, as well as present and debate the results of such analyses. I will give an invited talk entitled "Bayesian dynamic modeling for large space-time datasets using Gaussian predictive processes." → Details
Case Studies in Bayesian Statistics and Machine Learning, October 14 - 15, 2011, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
The workshop will focus on applications of Bayesian statistics and Machine Learning to problems in science and technology. The workshop builds upon the Case Studies in Bayesian Statistics Workshop which was held at CMU for the last two decades. My colleague Sudipto Banerjee and I will give an invited case study entitled "Advances in hierarchical spatial models for mapping forest attributes across large domains." → Details
Geography 890, Spring 2011
Hierarchical Bayesian Models for Environmental Spatial Data Analysis
This course explores recent advancements in hierarchical random effects models using Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods. The focus is on linear and generalized linear modeling frameworks that accommodate spatial and temporal associations. The course blends modeling, computing, and data analysis including an introduction to the R statistical environment. Special attention is given to exploration and visualization of spatial-temporal data and the practical and accessible implementation of spatial-temporal models. → Details
Statistical Issues in Forest Management, May 2 - 4, 2011, Université Laval, Québec, Canada
Spatial statistics and forest inventories
The workshop covers advances in model-based and design-based estimation procedures, non-parametric models and smoothing methods, spatial modeling and nearest neighbor imputation, and post-stratification. I'll give a talk entitled "Advances in hierarchical spatial models for quantifying forest attributes." Should be a very good mix of participants. → Details
