About

I started my career at Rothamsted Research (then Rothamsted Experimental Station) in 1987 working as a statistical consultant with researchers and on implementation of a REML algorithm within the Genstat statistical package.

In 2000, I moved to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to study for a PhD on ‘Smoothing Spline Methods in the Mixed Model Framework’ (awarded December 2005).

In late 2003 I returned to Rothamsted and continued to work as a statistical consultant with researchers, in particular developing expertise in analysing genetic data and QTL. During this time l led the evolution of several statistical training courses for scientists, which turned into the book ‘Statistical Methods in Biology’, published in 2014.

From 2012-2016 I worked for VSN International, developing software for the analysis of linear mixed models. In June 2016 I left VSN to pursue a more varied career.

I have over 50 papers published in scientific journals, most as a statistical collaborator with scientists, some as development of statistical methodology. I am knowledgeable in most aspects of design, analysis, interpretation and reporting of field and laboratory trials in agriculture and plant biology. I am expert in REML analysis of unbalanced data sets, spatial designs and repeated measurements. Nowadays I mainly work with the statistical packages Genstat and R.