I am an applied statistician at the University of Otago. My research interests are broad but generally involve applications in the biological sciences. Much of my work has been in the field of statistical ecology, but I also work in areas such as environmental and earth sciences, biomechanics, physiology, genetics, and diagnostic testing. I typically work with data that vary in space and time.

You can find a list of publications on my Google Scholar profile.

From 2026 I am the Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Otago, New Zealand.

I was Co-Editor of Biometrics between 2023 – 2025.

Positions held

Current

• Professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Otago

Previous:

• Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, University of Kentucky
• Postdoctoral researcher, Applied Statistics Center, Columbia University

Students

PhD (Current)

• Carlo Gamble (co-supervisored by Jonathan Broadbent, Andrew Gray, and Matthew Parry)
• Cecilia Latham (co-supervised by Dean Anderson)
• Sarah Croft (co-supervised by Mik Black and Richard Barker)
• Will Carome (lead supervisor Will Rayment, co-supervised by Robert Smith)
• Matthew Strother (lead supervisor Katrina Sharples)

PhD (Completed)

• Taylor Hamlin (co-supervisored by Phil Seddon, Dean Anderson)
• Anna Redmond (lead supervisor Tilman Davies, co-supervised by Phil Sheard)
• Andy Pohl (University of Calgary; lead supervisor Reed Ferber)
• Nicholas Daudt (lead supervisor Will Rayment, co-supervised by Robert Smith and Eric Woehler)
• Leah Crowe (lead supervisor Will Rayment, co-supervised by Steve Dawson)
• Zeki Huang (lead supervisor Russell Frew)
• Soundarya Karamcheti (lead supervisor Phil Bremer, co-supervised by Gale Brightwell)
• Alastair Lamont (co-supervisor Richard Barker)
• Heloise Pavanato (lead supervisor Richard Barker)
• Timothy Bilton (co-supervisors Ken Dodds, Mik Black)
• Paula Bran (lead supervisor Richard Barker)
• John Holmes (lead supervisor Richard Barker, co-supervised by Michael Lee and Ken Dodds)

Masters (Current)

• Ela Hunt (Lead supervisor Philip Seddon)

Masters (Completed)

• Theo Thompson (Lead supervisor Philip Seddon)

Honours

• Carlo Gamble, 2025
• Jackson Zame, 2023
• Josh Forward, 2021
• Vicky He, 2021
• Anna Redmond, 2019
• Yu Yang, 2017
• Georgia Anderson, 2016
• Nick Gelling, 2016
• Alastair Lamont, 2015