quantum forest

Thanks to a link on R-bloggers, I was introduced to Luis Apiolaza’s blog, Quantum Forest, which covers data analyses and R comments he encounters in his research as a quantitative forester/geneticist. And he works at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, where I first taught from Bayesian Core in 2006. Which may be why he chose Bayesian Core as one of the three books he is currently reading to understand Bayesian statistics better. (The other two are Jim Albert’s Bayesian computation with R, and Bill Bolstad’s Introduction to Bayesian Statistics, which is not the one I reviewed recently.) Luis has just started the book but he mentions that “the book has managed to capture my interest”, which is real nice, and being annoyed by the self-contained label we put on the back cover. Which is a reaction I also got from some students when teaching the book for a week in Australia, as they thought they could take it without a probability background. Hopefully, we’ll manage to complete our revision before next summer!

10w2170, Banff

Yesterday night, we started the  Hierarchical Bayesian Methods in Ecology workshop by trading stories. Everyone involved in the programme discussed his/her favourite dataset and corresponding expectations from the course. I found the exchange most interesting, like the one we had two years ago in Gran Paradiso, because of the diversity of approaches to Statistics reflected by the exposition. However, a constant theme is the desire to compare and rank models (this term having different meanings for different students) and the understanding that hierarchical models are a superior way to handle heterogeneity and to gather strength from the whole dataset. A two-day workshop is certainly too short to meet students’ expectations and I hope I will manage to focus on the concepts rather than on the maths and computations…

As each time I come here, the efficiency of BIRS in handling the workshop and making everything smooth and running amazes me. Except for the library, I think it really compares with Oberwolfach in terms of environment and working facilities. (Oberwolfach offers the appeal of seclusion and the Black Forest, while BIRS is providing summits all around plus the range of facility of the Banff Centre and the occasional excitement of a bear crossing the campus or a cougar killing a deer on its outskirt…)

Off to Banff!!

Today I am travelling from Paris to Banff, via Amsterdam and Calgary, to take part in the Hierarchical Bayesian Methods in Ecology two day workshop organised at BIRS by Devin Goodsman (University of Alberta),  François Teste (University of Alberta), and myself. I am very excited both by the opportunity to meet young researchers in ecology and forestry, and by the prospect in spending a few days in the Rockies, hopefully with an opportunity to go hiking, scrambling and even climbing. (Plus the purely random crossing of Julien‘s trip in this area!) The slides will be mostly following those of the course I gave in Aosta, while using Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R for R practicals: