[Aqualist] Short course on 'Numerical Analysis of Palaeoenvironmental Data', Feb 13-17 (+20-22), 2017 @ University of Adelaide, South Australia

[Jonathan Tyler]

Dear All,

some of you have heard about this at last week's AQUA conference, but I'd
like to announce that we will be organising a short course on 'Numerical
Analysis of Palaeoenvironmental Data' from Feb 13-17, 2017, followed by an
optional 3 days the following week (20-22 Feb) for drop in consultation and
group discussion.

The course will be taught by Dr. Gavin Simpson, a world leading
environmental statistician at the University of Regina, Canada (
http://www.uregina.ca/science/biology/people/faculty-research/simpson-gavin/index.html).
Gavin’s research focus is centred on pushing the boundaries of numerical
analysis of palaeoenvironmental data. He authored three chapters in the
influential handbook ‘Birks et al. (2012) *Tracking Environmental Change
Using Lake Sediments, Volume 5: Data Handling and Numerical Techniques*’ in
addition to many other papers involving novel statistical approaches to
palaeoenvironmental research. Gavin may be recognisable to some for his
excellent blogging on using the R statistical platform for numerical
analysis and plotting.

Before moving to Canada, Gavin taught a course called ‘Numerical Analysis
of Biological and Environmental Data’ at the Environmental Change Research
Centre (ECRC) at University College London (UCL), which he progressively
inherited from Prof. John Birks (Bergen University). The ECRC course was a
hugely successful initiative that ran annually for over 20 years with
financial support from the UK government, teaching ~20 students per year
from universities and government agencies worldwide. Gavin taught the
course for the latter 10 years.

The course at Adelaide will represent a shorter version of the ECRC course,
with a greater focus on palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate data. The
format of the course will be lectures in the morning, followed by computer
practicals in the afternoon, taught using R. If you're not familiar with R,
don't worry - the course is designed to get you quickly up to speed, and
there will be several people around to help out. A skeleton syllabus is
given below, but we would welcome any advice or requests for additional
subjects to be covered. In particular, the syllabus is deliberately open
for part of Friday, and Gavin will discuss the various options for
utilising that time during the first few days. If you're willing to hang
around for the weekend (and an Adelaide Hills wine tour has been mooted),
the final 3 days will give you a chance to discuss more specific questions
and applications in an informal seminar format. Gavin will give a research
seminar during the week to showcase his more cutting edge research, and you
may find inspiration to translate those techniques to your research.
Finally, Gavin will stay in Adelaide for a few extra days on his own time
to discuss collaborative projects.

The cost of the 8 day course will be $250 for students and $500 for
non-students. I will circulate details on how to register as soon as they
have been finalised with our administrators. If you are concerned that the
cost of registration will prevent you from attending, or to seek advice re.
finding a couch to sleep on during the week, please contact me directly.
Note that the Adelaide Fringe will start on Feb 17th, which is great fun,
but you may want to book travel as soon as possible.

Best wishes

Jonathan



*Preliminary Syllabus (13th-17th Feb, 2017, Adelaide University, North
Terrace Campus *)*

*Day 1*

- Concepts of palaeoenvironmental data, modelling and regression.

- Introduction to data handling, plotting and modelling in R.

- Linear models.



*Day 2 *

- Advanced modelling, including Generalised Linear Models (GLMs),
Generalised Additive Models (GAMs) and Mixed models.


*Day 3*

- Ordination: direct/indirect; linear/non-linear.

- Clustering.


Gavin gives a research seminar in the afternoon.


*Day 4*

- Timeseries analysis and analysis of stratigraphical data.

- Modelling timeseries data.

- Frequency analysis of timeseries data.


*Day 5 *

- Timeseries analysis and analysis of stratigraphical data continued.
- Flexible lecture/practical content based on interests and needs of
participants.


*Days 6-8*
- Drop in sessions and seminar discussions around specific topics of
interest to participants.

* date not preliminary - these have been fixed.



-- 
Dr. Jonathan J. Tyler
Department of Earth Sciences
University of Adelaide
South Australia 5005
Australia
+61 (08) 8313 2810
http://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/jonathan.tyler