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Professor Renate Meyer
MSc in Mathematics, PhD in Statistics, RWTH Aachen
Biography
I am an applied Bayesian statistician. After obtaining an MSc in Mathematics ( for which I was awarded the Springorum Denkmuenze) from the RWTH Aachen, Germany, I worked as a research scientist in the Department of Medical Statistics from 1988-1993 and did a PhD in Mathematical Statistics also at the RWTH Aachen. I then took up a lectureship in Statistics at the University of Auckland in 1994.
Research | Current
Please refer to google scholar for a list of publications
I am working on applied Bayesian inference and MCMC methods with interdisciplinary research collaborations and applications in astrophysics, econometrics, fisheries, marine ecology, medicine and engineering.
I am co-chair of the NZ Astrostatistics and General Relativity Group, which comprises statisticians and astrophysicists from the University of Auckland, Victoria, Canterbury and Otago. In 2019, we joined the LISA (Laser Interferometric Space Antennna) Consortium that leads the European Space Agency mission of observing gravitational waves from space, see also the NZ Herald article.
Marsden Fund Council Award "Gravitational waves: sources and signals" This large interdisciplinary project from the Marsden Fund Council Award will bring together expertise in mathematics, computational science, fundamental physics and novel statistical methodologies from across Aotearoa New Zealand. This funding will provide a collaborative platform within Aotearoa New Zealand to facilitate the participation of NZ scientists in the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) mission, one of the most exciting international science missions designed to decipher gravitational waves.
Interview with Kim Hill on November 6, 2021 on RNZ
AMSI-SSA 2021 Public Lecture "Data Detectives on the Trail of Black Hole Mergers"
https://ws.amsi.org.au/public-lecture/
ANZSA 2021 Keynote "Bayesian time series tools (not only) for gravitational wave astronomy " https://anzsc2021.com.au/anzscspeakers/#
University of Auckland 2020 Public Lecture "When spacetime trembles -- forensic statistics of black hole mergers"
Inaugural Statistical Science Lecture 2018 "Surfing Gravitational Waves: Black holes and Bayesian nonparametrics" https://www.uow.edu.au/niasra/events--seminars/
My ongoing collaboration with astrophysicists Nelson Christensen, Carleton College, started in 1998 when we pioneered the MCMC approach to gravitational wave and cosmic microwave background radiation data analysis. This started a Marsden and NSF funded research program which led to world-wide collaborations and ground-breaking contributions to the development of MCMC-based data analysis strategies for LIGO with a series of publications in top-ranking Physics journals PRD and PRE. Some of these papers build the foundations of the MCMC techniques used to estimate the parameters of the two binary black hole mergers detected on September 14, 2015 by the Advanced LIGO interferometers and are cited in the parameter estimation paper that accompanied the famous detection paper by the LSC, published in Physical Review Letters on Feb. 11, 2016.
In econometrics, my collaboration with Prof Jun Yu, Dept. of Economics, Singapore Management University, concentrates on a Bayesian approach to stochastic volatility models for financial time series. Our frequently cited papers have been published in JBES, The Econometrics Journal, and Econometric Reviews.
Collaborative research in Fisheries and Marine Science with A/Prof Russell Millar started in 1996 and established the Bayesian approach to fisheries stock assessment using state-space models. This method has become the standard for analysing biomass dynamics models and our papers published in Applied Statistics and CJFAS, one of the world’s top fisheries journal, have received close to 200 citations. Related collaborative research with A/Prof Mike Dowd, Dalhousie University, in Marine Ecology, is in Bayesian statistical data assimilation using state space models where we have developed particle filtering methods for high-dimensional spatio-temporal ecosystems. Publications are in Ecological Modelling and Envirometrics.
A further main focus of my research is in Medical Statistics with recent papers on Bayesian approaches to analysing stratified survival data, time-dependent frailties and copula models for multivariate survival data. Papers have been published in Statistics in Medicine, CSDA, and JRSSA. Last not least, Bayesian models for stratified survival data had significant applications in Engineering, where we developed new hierarchical models for pipe failure times of water distribution systems.
- Bayesian statistics
- Markov chain Monte Carlo methods
- Survival analysis, multiple events, non-and semi-parametric models
- copulas
- Astrophysics, gravitational waves, cosmic microwave background radiation
- State-space modelling
- Fisheries stock assessment
- Econometrics, financial time series, stochastic volatility models
- Longitudinal data analysis, dynamic and semiparametric models
Past research interests
- multivariate analysis
- matrix methods for statistics
- algorithms in multidimensional scaling
- correspondence analysis
Teaching | Current
- 2010, Guest Lecture at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany, Applied Bayesian Inference, Wintersemester 2010/11
- 2011 STATS731, Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2012 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2013 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2013 STATS763 Advanced Applied Statistics (PhD)
- 2014 STATS732Topics in Statistical Inference (graduate)
- 2014 STATS763 Advanced Theoretical Statistics (PhD),
- 2014 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2015 STATS732 Topics in Statistical Inference (graduate),
- 2015 STATS763 Advanced Theoretical Statistics (PhD)
- 2015 STATS331 Introduction to Bayesian Statistics (undergraduate) ,
- 2015 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2016 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2016 STATS766 Multivariate Statistics (graduate)
- 2017 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2017 STATS766 Multivariate Statistics (graduate)
- 2017 Short Course: Applied Bayesian Inference, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg,
- 2018 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2019 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
- 2021 STATS731 Bayesian Inference (graduate)
Postgraduate supervision
Postdoctoral Research Fellows
- Dr Samuel Manda (2000-2002)
- Dr Katherine Everard (2008-2010)
- Dr Jose S. Romeo Nunez (2012-2015)
- Dr Patricio Maturana Russel (2018-2020)
PhD students
- Wouter van Zeist, Thesis topic: "Graviational waveform synthesis", (2021-)
- Petra Tang, Thesis topic: "Estimating the spectral density of the stochastic gravitational wave background with LISA", (2020-)
- Yifu Tang, Thesis topic: "Bayesian nonparametric analysis of non-Gaussian time series", (2019-)
- Yixuan Liu, Thesis topic: "Robust Bayesian Analysis of Multivariate Time Series", (2019-)
- Guillaume Boileau, Thesis topic: "Observations cosmologiques par LISA - limitations dues au bruit et aux signaux astrophysiques", Artemis (2018-2021)
- Alexander Meier, Thesis topic: "A Matrix Gamma Process with applications to Bayesian analysis of multivariate time series" (2016- 2019)
- Matthew Edwards Thesis topic:"Bayesian modelling of stellar core collapse gravitational wave signals and detector noise" (2013-2017)
- Jonathan Briggs , Thesis topic: "Bayesian state space modelling for data assimilation in phytoplankton ecosystems" (2007-2011)
- Asad Ali , Thesis topic: "Monte Carlo Methods for LISA Data Analysis" (2007-2011)
- Christian Roever, Thesis topic: "Bayesian Inference on Astrophysical Binary Inspirals Based on Gravitational-Wave Measurements" (2004-2007)
- Richard Umstaetter, Thesis topic: "Bayesian Strategies for Gravitational Radiation Data Analysis" (2003-2006)
- Andreas Berg, Thesis topic: "Bayesian Analysis of Stochastic Volatility Models for Financial Time Series" (2000-2004)
- Bo Cai, Thesis topic: "Adaptive Sampling Schemes and Bayesian Semiparametric Survival Analysis" (1999-2003)
Distinctions/Honours
Littlejohn Research Award, New Zealand Statistical Association (2020)
James Cook Fellowship, Royal Society of New Zealand, (2019-2021)
Borchers Plakette, Postdoctoral Award of the University of Aachen for promotion with "summa cum laude" (1994)
Springorum Denkmunze, Postgraduate Award of the University of Aachen for MSc with distinction (1988)
Responsibilities
Department of Statistics, Graduate Officer for PhD
Chair of PhD Committee, Department of Statistics
Group Leader of NZ Astrostatistics and General Relativity Group within LISA Consortium
Professorial Member of the University of Auckland Board of Graduate Studies
Member of the Faculty of Science Postgraduate Committee
Member of Research Committee, Department of Statistics
Areas of expertise
Bayesian inference, MCMC, copulas, state-space models, survival analysis, gravitational radiation data analysis, stochastic volatility models
Committees/Professional groups/Services
Associate Editor Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation
Faculty of Science Staffing Committee 2016-2018
Member of LISA Consortium
Member of :
International Biometric Society
Institute of Mathematical Statistics
International Society for Bayesian Analysis
New Zealand Statistical Association
German Mathematical Association, Stochastic Section
Professional Astronomers Group within the RASNZ
Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)
- Gallardo, D. I., Romeo, J. R., & Meyer, R. (2017). A simplified estimation procedure based on the EM algorithm for the power series cure rate model. Communications in Statistics - Simulation and Computation, 46 (8), 6342-6359. 10.1080/03610918.2016.1202276
- Meyer, R., & Christensen, N. (2016). Gravitational waves: A statistical autopsy of a black hole merger. Significance, 13 (2), 20-25. 10.1111/j.1740-9713.2016.00896.x
- Meyer, R., & Romeo, J. S. (2015). Bayesian semiparametric analysis of recurrent failure time data using copulas. Biometrical Journal, 57 (6), 982-1001. 10.1002/bimj.201400125
- Manda, S., Masenyetse, L., Cai, B., & Meyer, R. (2015). Mapping HIV prevalence using population and antenatal sentinel-based HIV surveys: A multi-stage approach. Population Health Metrics, 13 (1).10.1186/s12963-015-0055-z
- Edwards, M., Meyer, R., & Christensen, N. L. (2015). Bayesian semiparametric power spectral density estimation with applications in gravitational wave data analysis. Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation, and Cosmology, 92 (6).10.1103/PhysRevD.92.064011
Other University of Auckland co-authors: Matt Edwards - Meyer, R., & Romeo, J. S. (2015). Bayesian semiparametric analysis of recurrent failure time data using copulas. Biometrical Journal10.1002/bimj.201400125
- Romeo, J. S., Meyer, R., & Reyes-Lopez, F. E. (2014). Hierarchical failure time regression using mixtures for classification of the immune response of Atlantic salmon. Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics, 19 (4), 503-523. 10.1007/s13253-014-0188-8
- Kauermann, G., & Meyer, R. (2014). Penalized marginal likelihood estimation of finite mixtures of Archimedean copulas. Computational Statistics, 29 (1-2), 283-306. 10.1007/s00180-013-0454-1
Identifiers
Contact details
- +64 9 923 5755
- +64.9.923.5755
- renate.meyer@auckland.ac.nz
- rmey006@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Primary office location
SCIENCE CENTRE 303S - Bldg 303S
Level 3, Room 365
38 PRINCES ST
AUCKLAND CENTRAL
AUCKLAND 1010
New Zealand