Biography

My research is on the interface between the theory and application of Statistics. I have worked on a wide range of statistical problems ranging over air pollution, anxiety and depression, astronomy, athletics, concrete, cosmetics, flooding, fungicides, fuel filters, marketing of cars, obesity and schizophrenia. I have also served as a consultant to industry on statistical issues.

Interests

  • Statistics
  • Data Science
  • R

Education

  • PhD in Statistics, 1987

    University of California, Berkeley

  • BA in Mathematics, 1982

    University of Cambridge

Recent Posts

Converting from Bookdown to Quarto

Two years ago, I converted my lecture notes to Bookdown. I have been following the development of Quarto with interest. Although Bookdown is not going away, it does seem that future developments will be based on Quarto.
Last updated on 17 Aug, 2022

A more moderate view of Excel

When I heard that the UK government had lost 16,000 covid-19 cases meaning that the contacts of infected persons were not traced and informed, I got angry. The problem was attributed to an Excel “glitch” so I posted a rather caustic tweet about how Excel should not be used for data analysis.
Last updated on 6 Oct, 2020

Converting to Accessible Lecture Notes

Why do this? In 2018, the UK government passed the The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations which requires Universities (among others) to provide all website information in an “accessible” format.
Last updated on 1 Sep, 2020

An Alternative to the OFQUAL algorithm

As anyone in the UK knows, A-level exams, taken at age 18 and mostly used to determined admission to university were cancelled this year due to the pandemic. The UK government asked OFQUAL (a semi-independent government body) to determine the A-level grades.
Last updated on 28 Aug, 2020

Experience from running R workshops in developing countries

Having run a couple of workshops introducing R in developing countries, I offer four pieces of advice: Don’t rely on the internet. The internet reaches everywhere but what may be adequate for light use by a single user quickly crumbles when large numbers try to make downloads simultaneously.
19 May, 2020
See all posts

Projects

Wastewater Monitoring

Sampling wastewater for Covid-19 and environmental monitoring
Wastewater Monitoring

Statistics training in Mongolia

Statistics and Data Science training to build research capacity to address societal problems in Mongolia
Statistics training in Mongolia

Government Statistics in Paraguay

Using statistics in government
Government Statistics in Paraguay

Anxiety and Depression

Using healthcare records to optimise treatments
Anxiety and Depression

Statistial Analysis of Facial Motion

Cleft Lip/Palate and Facial Paralysis
Statistial Analysis of Facial Motion

Ergonomics

Human motion modelling with automotive applications
Ergonomics

Books

Extending the Linear Model with R

Code, Errata and Supplementary Materials
15 Dec, 2020
Extending the Linear Model with R

Linear Models with Python

Code, Errata and Supplementary Materials
15 Dec, 2020
Linear Models with Python

Linear Models with R

Code, Errata and Supplementary Materials
15 Dec, 2020
Linear Models with R

Bayesian Regression Modeling with INLA

Code and Errata
28 Aug, 2020
Bayesian Regression Modeling with INLA

Recent Publications

Challenges in realising the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology to quantitatively monitor and predict the spread of disease

Researchers around the world have demonstrated correlations between measurements of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater (WW) and case rates of …
Julian Faraway, James Boxall-Clasby, Edward J. Feil, Marjorie Gibbon, Oliver Hatfield, Barbara Kasprzyk-Hordern, Theresa Smith
PDF
Challenges in realising the potential of wastewater-based epidemiology to quantitatively monitor and predict the spread of disease

Attribution of long-term changes in peak river flows in Great Britain

We investigate the evidence for changes in the magnitude of peak river flows in Great Britain. We focus on a set of 117 near-natural …
Aoibheann Brady, Julian Faraway, Ilaria Prosdocimi
PDF
Attribution of long-term changes in peak river flows in Great Britain

When small data beats big data

Small data is sometimes preferable to big data. A high quality small sample can produce superior inferences to a low quality large …
Julian Faraway, Nicole Augustin
DOI blog post
When small data beats big data

Confidence bands for smoothness in nonparametric regression

The choice of the smoothing parameter in nonparametric regression is critical to the form of the estimated curve and any inference that …
PDF Code blog post
Confidence bands for smoothness in nonparametric regression

Does data splitting improve prediction?

Data splitting divides data into two parts. One part is reserved for model selection. In some applications, the second part is used for …
DOI blog post
Does data splitting improve prediction?

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