Dr Bill Venables is a senior statistician with CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences.

Dr Bill Venables: an internationally renowned statistician focusing on our environment

Dr Bill Venables uses his expertise in statistical modelling to work with marine scientists on marine biodiversity and stock assessment problems.

• 25 June 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011

Overview

• Current activities
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Venables is a Senior Statistician with CSIRO. An internationally renowned statistician, his interests are in biodiversity and ecological sustainability issues. 

Dr Venables currently works with marine scientists on marine biodiversity and stock assessment issues. He uses tools such as:

• statistical modelling
• spatio and spatio-temporal analysis
• data analysis
• graphics.

He also regularly contribues to the development of theory in these areas.

Dr Venables's recent activities have included:

• biodiversity assessment, mapping, modelling and monitoring in Northern Australia, focusing on the Great Barrier Reef
  
• contributing to fishery sustainability by providing scientific support to management, including improved methods of stock assessment and assessment of environmental impact
  
• statistical modelling, particularly of complex ecological and environmental processes
  
• teaching courses in the 'R' software for statistical modelling and computing to international audiences.

  Dr Venables has contributed significantly to experimental design, theoretical statistics and statistical computation.

Background

Dr Venables joined CSIRO in 1999 as a Senior Research Scientist. During his career he has worked with researchers from a range of disciplines, including medical and environmental.

Prior to joining CSIRO, Dr Venables was a senior lecturer in Statistics and Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.

Recent research achievements in Dr Venables's career include the following, done in close collaboration with colleagues from both CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research:

• Contributing to the Great Barrier Reef Seabed Biodiversity Project of the Reef CRC. Dr Venables contributed to the design of the survey and the development and implementation of methods for analysing and modelling the processes underlying the data to achieve the best possible understanding of the sea floor habitats and associated marine life on the Great Barrier Reef seabed.
  
• Risk Analysis for the Northern Prawn Fishery (NPF). Dr Venables contributed to the project to develop improved stock assessment procedures, notably a completely revised method for allocating catch to their component biological species so that stock assessments for each become possible.
  
• Fishing Power Analysis for the Northern Prawn Fishery. Fishing power is the capacity of a fishing fleet to locate and capture fish, and how that changes over time. This depends on factors including the skill level of skippers in the fishing fleet and advances in technology for catching prawns. Dr Venables coordinated the statistical examination of the comparative performance of vessels.

Academic qualifications

Dr Venables has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Statistics, with First Class Honours, from the University of Queensland, Australia, 1965
• Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1973.

Achievements

Dr Venables has contributed significantly to experimental design, theoretical statistics and statistical computation.

Dr Venables is highly-regarded in the international statistical community for his expertise in the statistical software packages S, S-PLUS and more recently R. 

His books Modern Applied Statistics with S and S Programming, written with Professor Brian Ripley of the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, have become standard references both for professionals and advanced students.

Dr Venables was appointed to an honorary position of Adjunct Professor in Statistics at the University of Queensland in 2007.

Read more about our work in Environmental informatics: strength in numbers.