Faculty PageBio
I am a Data Scientist working at the intersection of survey statistics, spatial data analysis, and AI/ML. I am a Professor of Geography at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, currently on loan to the National Science Foundation (NSF), where I am a Program Director of the Human Networks and Data Science Program. Previously, I was Head of the Department of Geography and Sustainability.
I am an expert in statistical and geospatial data analysis. Much of my origional research centers around methods for geospatial data and analysis to squeeze more local information from large national censuses and surveys. My research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, US Census Bureau, US Forest Service, US Dept of Energy, and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and I have served in leadership roles on committees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics providing feedback on innovations at the US Census Bureau.
Due to my leave from the University to NSF, I am not admitting new graduate students or researchers in the 25/26 academic year.
Key research interests
- Spatial statistics: mixed level modeling, geostatistics
- Survey and Small area statistics
- Bayesian data analysis
- Environmental data analysis
- Demography and Population Geography
Teaching
I regularly teach the following graduate and undergraduate topcs:
- Introduction to Statistics
- Multilevel regression
- Spatio-temporal statistics
- Survey statistics
- Advanced GIS analysis