Low Choy

CURRENT Recently appointed (until June 2012) as Senior Research Fellow in Statistics for the CRC NPB. Research Interests | Bayesian statistics methodology and applications | Statistical model-based design | Expert elicitation design, methodology and calibration | Expert-informed regressions, mixture models & classification trees. Application areas | Statistics for biosecurity | Qualitative risk assessment | Environmental and ecological statistics | Habitat modelling and species distribution mapping | Expert elicitation software and training. ACTIVITIES Session Co-organizer, Bayesian and Elicitation sessions, MODSIM09. Member of the Scientific Advisory Group to the Queensland Government on Long-term monitoring of impacts of horse-riding in national parks. Member of the Critical Friends of State of Environment Reporting. Member: ANZ statistical society, International Bayesian Society, International Modelling and Simulation Society. WORK HISTORY Most recently have spent 5 years as a Research Fellow at QUT working on three research grants (QUT postdoctoral research award, ARC Discovery Bayesian priors, QUT epidemiological study into exposure of children to ultrafine particles at school). Consolidated research interests in developing Bayesian statistical methodology for ecological applications, expert elicitation, and statistical design. Before then spent 7 years at Queensland EPA, starting as a GIS/statistical modeller to support air quality and water quality monitoring, then becoming lead environmetrician in the agency. Gained experience in a broad range of statistics for environmental and ecological application, monitoring and reporting. Developed research interests in using informative priors within a Bayesian setting to capture expert knowledge, in the common situation where data was not yet available or was limited. Spent several years at QUT starting as a research assistant on a spatial statistics problem on plant disease, then progressed to statistical consultant (both internal and external clients across all disciplines), and also worked as a research associate on spatial statistics with AHURI (Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute). During PhD candidature, due to problems with computer systems support, spent one year as a full-time lecturer. Spent two years at Bond University as a Postgraduate Research Fellow working on queueing theory research, teaching a core course in computing and data skills, and undertaking consulting on passive smoking. Have lectured courses on statistics for computer scientists, postgraduate students and experimental design for statisticians. Have also developed courses on statistics for medical researchers and for industrial designers, landscape architects and planners. Have tutored students in statistics from above disciplines as well as engineering, business, and science. QUALIFICATIONS AND AWARDS Awarded PhD from QUT on spatial statistics, funded by an APAI, with a thesis focussing on computational issues on inference for an hierarchical linear model with underlying Ising model to capture spatial pattern. Initial Bachelor of Science degree was at University of Queensland, with a major in pre-honours mathematics and computer science. Was awarded first class in a postgraduate Honours degree in Mathematical Statistics, also at UQ. Awards include: a travel award from the International Biometrics Society, a best poster award from the Royal Statistical Society (Bayesian meeting), AURISA young spatial information analyst of the year.