I’m currently an assistant professor at the University of San Francisco, with joint appointments between the Math and Statistics department and the M.S. in Data Science Program. I’m also a cohost of the USF Data Science Podcast with Robert Clements.
Broadly, I am interested in the treatment of complex structured data whose geometries thwart traditional, off-the-shelf statistical methods. In particular I am attracted to questions concerning functional and longitudinal data, especially when the functions are multivariate, contaminated by warping, or subject to constraints, as in the case of densities or monotonic curves.
Beyond developing methodology, I’m also a fan of working as a applied statistician in my research. I like finding intuitive and creative ways of conveying results and breaking through the “language barrier” between statisticians and other scientists. My applied collaborations span a wide variety of domains: currently I have ongoing projects with conservationists at The Nature Conservancy, neuroscientists from the Salk Institute and UCSD, and opthalmic surgeons at Stanford Medicine. In the past I’ve collaborated with scientists at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo, and the researchers behind Mt. Everest’s Himalayan Database, to name a few. I am also a contributor and past maintainer of the R package fdapace.
With much of my working time spent behind a computer screen, I find a lot of value in connecting to the natural world when I have the chance. In free moments you’ll probably find me on a trail, in a river, or road tripping around Northern CA.