Biography

I am a fourth year PhD student in the Quantitative Ecology and Resource Management program at the University of Washington. My research focuses on applying spatiotemporal statistical models to questions in fisheries management and ecology. In particular, I am developing models for indices of abundance that include fishery-dependent observations. I am also interested in improving the computational efficiency and reliability of Bayesian model fits through the application of advanced Markov chain Monte Carlo tools like the No-U-Turn Sampler. Prior to graduate school I worked in aviation maintenance and the outdoor industry.

Interests

• Spatiotemporal statistics
• Bayesian statistics
• Fisheries management

Education

• PhD in Quantitative Ecology & Resource Management, In progress

University of Washington

• MS in Statistics, 2016

• BS in Biology & Physics, 2008

Clarkson University

Recent Posts

Introduction to Hyak

Use Hyak when you need additional resources More processing power Models or data don’t fit in RAM Think carefully about how to …

Set up a website for GitHub Pages

Use Git, GitHub, and blogdown to publish an example website on GitHub Pages

Compiling R with Intel compilers and MKL on Hyak

Steps to compile custom, optimized R on Hyak

Projects

Combining fishery-dependent and -independent CPUE data

Spatially varying catchability for fishery-dependent CPUE standardization.

Preferential sampling in fishery-dependent catch and effort data

Accounting for preferential sampling in spatial models of catch and effort data

Nonstationary spatial processes for fisheries

Incorporating nonstationary spatial processes by allowing for spatially varying covariance parameters.

Best practices for fitting non-linear Bayesian state-space models

Eliminating HMC divergences when fitting Bayesian state-space models for fish populations.

Bayesian models for assessment of Southern Humpback whales

This project is a collaboration between Alex Zerbini, Grant Adams, and myself.

We are working to update Zerbini et al. (2006). …

Publications

Parameterizations for Bayesian state-space surplus production models

Bayesian state-space surplus production models are commonly applied in fisheries stock assessment when the only information available …

Assessing the recovery of an Antarctic predator from historical exploitation

The recovery of whale populations from centuries of exploitation will have important management and ecological implications due to …

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Parameterizations for Bayesian state-space surplus production models

Bayesian state-space surplus production models are commonly applied in fisheries stock assessment when the only information available …

Combining fishery-independent and -dependent catch observations in a single index of abundance by allowing for spatially varying catchability

For fisheries where both fishery-independent and -dependent catch observations are available, spatiotemporally standardized indices of …

Bayesian spatio-temporal modelling of anchovy abundance through the SPDE approach

A discussion of Bayesian spatio-temporal modelling of anchovy abundance through the SPDE approach by Quiroz and Prates for the Winter …

Reparameterizing Bayesian state-space models for more reliable fits

Bayesian state space models have played an important role in fisheries for many years. These models are typically fit using Markov …

Advanced Spatial Modeling with SPDEs using R and INLA, Chapter 1

A discussion of Chapter 1 in Advanced Spatial Modeling with SPDEs using R and INLA for the Autumn 2018 Space-time reading group at the …

Teaching

University of Washington School of Professional & Continuing Education

Course Assistant, 2016–present

Certificate in Statistical Analysis with R Programming