Staff Profile

Career Summary

Biography

Qualifications

• PhD, University of Wollongong, 17/05/1995
• Master of Arts (Honours), University of Sydney, 31/12/1971
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Sydney, 31/12/1968

Research

Research keywords

• goodness of fit
• nonparametric statistics

Research expertise

My areas of research expertise are goodness of fit (statistical model assessment) and nonparametric statistics (that makes minimal modelling assumptions). I have published prolifically with quality publishers and in quality journals, including Chapman & Hall/CRC, Oxford University Press, Biometrika, Biometrics, Technometrics, Statistics and Probability Letters, and Communications in Statistics. My publications include over 110 articles in refereed journals, book chapters, conference proceedings and encyclopedias, four significant co-editorships and five books.

In goodness of fit I have written over 40 articles for refereed journals, book chapters, conference proceedings and encyclopedias. Recently an anonymous reviewer of a journal submission said of the 1989 Smooth Tests of Goodness of Fit published by Oxford University Press: the seminal work by Rayner and Best on smooth goodness-of-fit tests (reflected in their monograph as well as numerous joint papers) basically reinvigorated and redefined the previously comatose area of goodness-of-fit. I am currently preparing a second edition of this book. Some 1200 copies of the first edition have been sold. The main contribution is an optimal method of statistical model assessment that can be applied to virtually any statistical model. It provides a method for deriving new tests of fit, and a standard against which any new procedure should be compared. It has been the springboard for much new research.

I was invited to give a plenary presentation to an international workshop on goodness of fit in Paris in May 2000. I have also accepted invitations to write review articles in this, and related areas, for the Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences and the International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

In nonparametric statistics with John Best I have co-authored two books, A Contingency Table Approach to Nonparametric Testing, and Nonparametrics for Sensory Science: A More Informative Approach. We have also written over 30 articles for refereed journals, book chapters, conference proceedings and encyclopedias. We have pioneered a generic approach that generates penetrating new nonparametric data analysis techniques. For experimental designs where there are known nonparametric tests, the approach generates extensions of these tests. For designs where previously there were no nonparametric tests, the approach generates a suite of tests that give a detailed and informative scrutiny of the data.

An invited joint presentation (with John Best) on some of this material was given to the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia in July 1999.

I gave an invited plenary address to the New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium at Massey University in December 2001.

I was for ten years the Statistics Editor of the Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences, and am currently a member of their editorial board, as I am for the Journal of Statistical Theory and Practice.

I have served on the International Organizing or Advisory Committees for six International Conferences on Statistics, Combinatorics and Related Areas between 2001 and 2006. These were held at Wollongong (I was one of the editors of the Proceedings of this conference), Allahabad, India, Southern Maine, USA, Lucknow, India, Auburn, Alabama, USA and at Lisbon in 2006.

Fields of Research

Memberships

Editorial Board.

• Statistics Area Editor (1998 to 2006) - Journal Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences
• Journal of Statistical Theory and Practice

Learned Academy.

• President, March 2002 - March 2004, Council Member, balance of 2001 to 2006. - N.S.W. Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia

Invitations

Administrative

Administrative expertise

At the University of Wollongong I successfully headed both the Department of Applied Statistics and the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, both for three years from their difficult beginnings. In the former I oversaw a period of steady growth of student numbers and in the research achievement of my colleagues.

When the Departments of Applied Statistics and Mathematics were combined into the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics I was appointed foundation Head, with the brief that the new School had to shed seven staff. Ultimately four of 20 plus academic positions were lost as opportunities were found to service growth areas to replace previously serviced areas in decline. This was done while maintaining morale and enabling staff to remain focused on producing quality outcomes in both research and teaching.

Since joining the University of Newcastle I have been head of the discipline of Statistics.

During 2003 I was the Director of the Statistical Consulting Service at the University of Wollongong. Since joining the University of Newcastle I successfully lobbied for new funding for the Statistical Support Service. The Service has been reorganised and revitalised.

Demonstrably I have positively influenced the research culture of my statistics colleagues. At the University of Wollongong in 2001 I was Coordinator of the Data Interpretation and Financial Analysis Program, one of five programs within the Institute of Mathematical Modelling and Computer Systems, and later Director of the Institute in 2002 and 2003. I was Chair of the Faculty of Informatics Faculty Research Committee during autumn session 2002.

Since joining the University of Newcastle I have served on the Leaders and Deputies Committee of the ARC Centre for Complex Dynamic Systems and Control.

In March 2002 I gave a well-received presentation On Building an Academic Research Profile (see http://www.math.uow.edu.au/research/docs/rprofile.pdf). This was attended by over 40 academics and researchers from across the University.

I have served on the Council of the NSW Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia for a decade from 1995. From March 2002 to March 2004 I was President of the Branch, the biggest and arguably the most important branch of the Society. As a consequence of my presidency the branch adopted better financial practices and took on new initiatives in providing services to members. For example, one initiative was to replace the awarding of prizes and scholarships, at a considerable and variable recurrent cost, with a Postgraduate Awards event. In this event research students from each university in the state make 20 minute presentations on their research, for cash and other prizes. Since 2003 this has been a sponsored event and run at a profit to the Branch.

I was an external reviewer for the Faculty of Science at the Queensland University of Technology for a new undergraduate course, the Bachelor of Mathematics, and an international reviewer for the National Science Foundation of USA in 2005.

Teaching

Teaching expertise

I have extensive experience that includes:

• nearly four decades of lecturing the full gamut of statistics courses - service and mainstream courses, large and small classes, remedial to postgraduate students;
• marking Higher School Certificate examinations in both Australia and New Zealand, and Moderator of the New Zealand Higher School Certificate Bursaries Mathematics with Statistics paper 1990 and 1991; and
• publishing advice on statistical and mathematical education at a variety of levels.

I have written several articles about learning statistics. They demonstrate that I have been thinking and writing about student learning for some time, and doing so at a level that is of considerable interest to my peers. My first published book was advice to Higher School Certificate students in New Zealand on project writing. At that time, in the late 1980s, project work contributed 20% to the assessment of the New Zealand Bursaries paper Mathematics with Statistics. Over 3,000 copies were sold. I wrote a parallel book for honours and thesis students. That book has been used at Otago University since I wrote it, and at Wollongong University since my arrival there in 1992. In 2000 I made this material available over the web (http://www.math.uow.edu.au/students/current/writing_02.pdf).

I was Education Officer of the New Zealand Statistical Association (1987-1990) and was Secretary of the Local Organising Committee for the International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS 3) Dunedin, New Zealand, August 1990. This event was attended by over 600 mainly international delegates.

I initiated and have jointly edited a special Statistical Education edition of the Journal of Applied Mathematics and Decision Sciences that appeared in 2003.

My experience and focus on student learning enabled me to promote an environment of quality student learning during my two headships at the University of Wollongong. For individuals I did this in a variety of ways, including a peer mentoring scheme, individual counselling, a local workshop I organised that focused on the School's Award Winning Teachers, and following its success, a similar Inspiring Teaching workshop I organised for the NSW Branch of the Australian Statistical Society. During my headship of the School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics, three staff won teaching awards, two at Faculty level and one at national level.