I am Professor of Statistics and Professor of Forestry and Natural Resources, and have a split appointment with Department of Statistics (75%) and Department of Forestry and Natural Resources (25%). I like the joint appointment that allows me to have access to various projects in forestry, agriculture and natural resources, and to develop interdisciplinary research. Those applications in turn shape my methodological research in statistics. I strongly believe that methodological research and applications mutually enhance each other.
My current research is primarily in the analysis of spatial and space-time data. These kinds of data are being observed in many fields such as climatology, geophysics, geology, natural resources, agriculture, health sciences, economics and marketing. Technological advances have made it feasible to collect and archive space-time data at large scales that we were not able to observe in just a decade ago. These massive and correlated data create challenging and interesting statistical problems, and demand innovative computational and methodological research. Computational statistics such as Markov chain Monte Carlo and EM algorithm are very useful to the analysis of spatial data.
I will teach Applied Spatial Statistics in the Spring Semester of 2008, which is cross-listed as STAT/FNR 598Z and is open to graduate students of both stat and non-stat majors.