Richard Karsten, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Math and Statistics

Email: richard.karsten@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Dr. Karsten has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Acadia University since 2001.  He has 25 years of experience in research focused on fluid dynamics and oceanography, with Since 2007, Dr. Karsten and his colleagues at Acadia have been working on mathematical and numerical models of tides and tidal power in the Bay of Fundy. Their work resulted in the first published assessment of in-stream tidal power in Minas Passage based on a theoretical estimate of extractable energy and a numerical simulation of in-stream turbines. Dr. Karsten has examined the resource potential of the major tidal passages of Nova Scotia, including a detailed analysis of the Digby Neck passages.  His work has estimated not only power potential, but also the reduction in tides and currents that will result. His research has examined improving analytical and numerical models of power extraction from tidal systems, with extensive validation through comparison to field data. Dr Karsten has also worked on examining the tidal resonance in Hudson Strait and the coupling of resonant shallow basins with the Atlantic Ocean.

Daniel L. Silver, Ph.D.

Professor, Jodrey School of Computer Science

Email: danny.silver@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Danny is a Professor in and a former Director of the Jodrey School of Computer Science at Acadia University. His areas of research and development are machine learning, data mining, user modeling and adaptive systems. He has published over 60 scientific papers, edited special journal editions, and has been part of the organizing or program committee for a number of national and international conferences, seminars and workshops.  Most recently he was awarded a Harrison McCain Foundation Award for research into advance machine learning methods. Since 1993, he has worked on machine learning and data mining projects in the private and public sector providing situation analysis and problem definition, project management and guidance, and predictive analytic services.  In 2011, he received the Science Champion Award from the Nova Scotia Discovery Center for his work on youth robotics and the advancement of STEM education.

Darcy Benoit, Ph.D.

Associate Professor / Director of the School of Computer Science

Email: darcy.benoit@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Dr. Darcy Benoit is an Associate Professor in and Acting Director of Acadia’s Jodrey School of Computer Science. He earned a BSc in Computer Science from St. Francis Xavier University and his PhD in Computing from Queen’s University. Dr. Benoit joined Acadia University in 2002. Since then, he has received several research grants from groups such as NSERC, inNovaCorp, a Nova Scotia Productivity and Innovation Voucher. He is the author or co-author of over 30 publications. Dr. Benoit’s research areas include large-scale data collection, database management systems, and mobile computing.

Trevor Avery, Ph.D., P.Stat

Assistant Professor, Biology and Mathematics & Statistics

Email: trevor.avery@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Trevor is an Associate Professor and Instructor at Acadia University in the Department of Biology, and is an accredited P. Stat. of Canada. His research encompasses large-scale and long-term ecological projects including recreational fishing and fisheries, environmental interactions, and animal passage with a focus on using modeling to describe ecological relationships. Data from citizen scientists, historical records, and 'new' field work are used in modeling. In 2012, he was awarded a Distinguished Visiting Lectureship to Rhodes University, South Africa to teach workshops on ecological modeling using R, and he will return to Rhodes in 2014 to teach advanced techniques. A Harrison McCain Emerging Scholar award will further his work on integrating Traditional/Ecological Knowledge and the use of citizen science and historical data into species conservation. He is/has been a member of international working groups investigating techniques to combine disparate historical data for long-term analysis of fisheries monitoring information. Data analytics is used often in the course of ecological modeling and the statistical techniques used by Trevor are transferable across disciplines.

Soren Bondrup-Nielsen, Ph.D.

Professor

Email: soren.bondrup-nielsen@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Dr. Bondrup-Nielsen is a Professor of Biology.  His research interests are broad, ranging from natural history of beetles and birds in forested and agricultural landscapes to population studies focusing on movement of the Forked fungus beetle. 

Hugh Chipman, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Math and Statistics

Email: hugh.chipman@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Hugh Chipman is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics.  His research interests include statistical learning, data mining, Bayesian methods, industrial applications, visualization and statistical computing.  He has consulted with industry and government agencies.  He is a former editor of Technometrics, an international journal on industrial statistics.  He held a Canada Research Chair at Acadia from 2004 - 2014.

Haiyi Zhang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor 

Email: haiyi.zhang@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Haiyi Zhang received his MS degree in 1990 from the Computer Science department of New Jersey Institute of Technology of USA, and his Ph.D in 1996 from the Computer Science department of Harbin Institute of Technology in China. He was a post-doctor in the information department of ABO, Finland in 2000. His research interests are machine learning and data mining. He has more than 50 academic papers published. He is working as an associate professor at Acadia University.

Pritam Ranjan, Ph.D.

Associate Professor 

Email: pritam.ranjan@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Pritam Ranjan is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He obtained BStat and MStat degrees from the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata, and a PhD degree in statistics from Simon Fraser University. His research areas include design and analysis of computer experiments, statistical models for computer simulators, sequential designs for feature estimation, and multi-stage fractional factorial designs with randomization restrictions. 

Pawan Lingras, Ph.D.

Professor 

Email: pawan@cs.smu.ca

Bio:

Pawan Lingras is a graduate of IIT Bombay with graduate studies from University of Regina. He is currently a professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax. He has authored more than 190 research papers in various international journals and conferences. He has also co-authored three textbooks, and co-edited two books and six volumes of research papers. His areas of interests include artificial intelligence, information retrieval, data mining, web intelligence, and intelligent transportation systems. The area of applications include engineering, retail, web and mobile analytics. He has served as the general co-chair, program co-chair, review committee chair, program committee member, and reviewer for various international conferences on artificial intelligence and data mining. He is also on editorial boards of a number of international journals.

Sean Myles, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor / Canada Research Chair, Agriculture Genetic Diversity

Email: sean.myles@dal.ca

Bio:

Dr Sean Myles is from Fredericton, New Brunswick, where he received his BA at Saint Thomas University. He completed his Masters in Human Biology at Oxford University and his PhD in Human Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. He turned to plants during his postdoc at Cornell where he worked on grape genomics. He also spent time as a postdoc at Stanford University before starting his current position in the Faculty of Agriculture at Dalhousie University as the Canada Research Chair in Agricultural Genetic Diversity in the summer of 2011. His research focusses on figuring out how to use genomics to more efficiently breed improved fruit that requires less chemical input to grow. 

Ying Zhang, Ph.D.

Associate Professor 

Email: ying.zhang@acadiau.ca

Bio:

Dr. Ying Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics and has been the Director of the Statistical Consulting Centre since coming to Acadia University in 2004.  Prior to this, Ying was the manager of the Statistical Laboratory at Western University (2001-2004), and has been an active statistical consultant since 1999. She has worked together with a variety of organizations, including: the Society of Actuaries, the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, Brescia University College, the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the London Health Sciences Centre, and the Real Estate and Land Use Institute at San Diego State University.  Recently Ying has participated in the policy and management studies for the Nova Scotia Department of Nature Resources, and the Nova Scotia Department of Health Wellness.  Ying has extensive experiences with applied statistical methodology research and consulting, specializing in time series analysis, nonparametric statistics, experiment design and survey sampling.  She has successfully produced numerous consulting project reports and some of her consulting work has been publishedin the top journals of applied statistics. 

Suzanne (Suzie) Blatt, Ph.D.

Research Scientist

Email: Suzanne.Blatt@AGR.GC.CA

Bio:

Dr. Blatt studies the interaction between insect pests in tree fruit crops (apples/pears/cherries) and their host. Overall objective is to develop novel means to manage pest populations. Currently she is examinig the role of host volatiles in overall attraction and how this is influenced by micro-climate, cultivar and rootstock. Anticipated work includes genetic expression of various traits and elucidation of heritability of attraction cues.