Distance Sampling Training Workshops
About the Instructors
The workshop instructors are at the forefront of research into distance sampling methods, and development of software to apply the new methods. They have extensive experience teaching distance sampling, including previous highly successful workshops taught in the UK, USA, Canada, Norway, and New Zealand.
Prof. Steve Buckland is Director of the Centre for Research into Ecological and Environmental Modelling (CREEM), a research centre devoted to working on the interface between statistics and ecology. He has published over 100 papers, mostly in the area of wildlife assessment, and is lead author on the standard reference works Introduction to Distance Sampling and Advanced Distance Sampling. He claims that some of his 20-year-old FORTRAN code can still be found lurking deep within the Distance analysis engine. Steve will be instructing on the introductory workshop.
Dr. David Borchers is Head of Statistics and a reader at St Andrews. He has wide-ranging experience in distance sampling methods. His innovative research into methods for when detection on the trackline is not certain has led to theory that unites the hitherto separate areas of distance sampling and mark-recapture. He is a co-author of Introduction to Distance Sampling, co-editor of Advanced Distance Sampling and lead author of Estimating Animal Abundance. David will be instructing on the advanced workshop.
Dr.Len Thomas is an academic fellow in statistics and a member of CREEM and RUWPA. He is the principal developer of the new versions of Distance, and has been involved in several research projects related to distance sampling. He is a co-author of Introduction to Distance Sampling and co-editor of Advanced Distance Sampling. Len also works on computer-intensive methods for fitting stochastic models of wildlife population dynamics. He will be instructing on the introductory and advanced workshops.
Dr. Louise Burt is a research fellow with RUWPA. She has extensive experience with the analysis of distance sampling studies, particularly cetacean studies, as well as in several other areas of wildlife population assessment. Louise will be instructing on the advanced workshop
Ms. Laura Marshall is a PhD student at St Andrews, working in the field of mixed-effect models and functional analysis of longitudinal data. She has plenty of first-hand experience of Distance, particularly the GIS design engine, having helped design and analyze the SCANS II survey of cetaceans in the North Sea. Laura will be instructing on the advanced workshop.
Ms Danielle Harris is a PhD student at St Andrews, working on estimating the abundance of whales using information from sparse arrays of seabed-mounted hydrophones. Danielle will be instructing on the introductory workshop.
Ms Cornelia Oedenhoven is a PhD student at St Andrews, who will be instructing on the introductory workshop.
In addition to the instructors, there will be other members of CREEM on hand to act as tutors and assist during the practical sessions.