I started out as an astronomer, studying the structure of galaxies and the orbits of stars within them. I moved into statistics in 1995 and have developed interests in a wide range of statistical applications, including some in my original subject of physics. In recent years I have research projects in Reliability Theory, Directional Statistics, Statistics in Geophysics, and Cluster Analysis. I have a developing interest in fisheries research. I have worked in institutes in Cambridge and London in the UK, Leiden in the Netherlands and Statistics New Zealand in Wellington. I started work at Victoria University of Wellington in 2001. I enjoy working on applied data analysis problems, especially where a novel approach is required to analyse the data correctly.

In my research I often take a Bayesian statistical approach. My work in reliability focusses on the description of correlated failures in multiple component systems – such as cars and computers – where the failure of one component can induce ageing or failure of other components. In geophysics my interests are in the determination of the properties of earthquakes, and then using those characteristics to infer properties of the tectonic stresses in the earth’s crust. This work in geophysics has led to research into the statistics of oriented objects: earthquakes, stress axes, and crystal orientations – in particular where there are high degrees of symmetry present. In such situations specialised methods of data analysis are needed. In fisheries I am interested in models of population size, and inference from the limited data that surveys and commercial catch reports provide. I am a member of a research consortium investigating methods of unsupervised clustering of data of mixed types.