Week 4!

Already week 4, time flies!  Here are the notes for the rest of the week and for the beginning of next week.  This week we will finish the Hypergeometric distribution and will begin working on the Poisson distribution.  Next week we will look at a double binomial process and we’ll begin studying probability distributions motivated by the ubiquitous problem of heterogeneity in Ecology and in Evolution.

HW: To be announced tomorrow in the lab class.

Week 3:

Here’s Lecture 4

Stat. principles, week 2

This week we are going to do some R intro work.  The Rintro1 and Rintro2 documents have some basic R tricks that I need you to try.  Also, please complete the questions in the documents and turn them in Tuesday the 22nd.

Finally, here’s Lecture 2 and Lecture 3.

 

 

Stats. Principles, week 1

Here is the reading material for the first week. Read it for Tuesday the 15th. It’s a review of some basic probability concepts.  During the first exercises session (Wed. 16th, Carr Hall 309), I’ll introduce you to R.  Remember:  No class on Thursday the 8th.  Usually I will post the reading material for the following week on Fridays.

José Miguel Ponciano

Welcome to my site. My research focuses on the use of stochastic processes in Biology.  Yes, using ‘focuses’ and ‘the entire field of Biology’ in the same sentence seems terribly contradictory.  However, I do regard both, stochastic processes and statistics as the ideal language to translate fundamental questions in Biology into testable hypotheses that can be confronted with real data.  This research focus grew from the the application of stochastic processes in  Ecology and Evolution, to Wildlife Management, Conservation Biology and Fisheries, to Epidemiological modeling, Microbial Community Ecology, Population Genetics and Phylogenetics.  Early in my academic formation as a Biologist I recognized the importance of Mathematics.  My two sources of inspiration were Pielou’s book “Mathematical Ecology” and Eric Pianka’s  ”Evolutionary Ecology” monograph.  That was around 1995.  Later on, I traded the field boots for programming, paper, pencils and lots of erasers.  The journey has been both, fascinating and rewarding. Here you’ll find links to publications, projects and working ideas from my Lab at University of Florida.  Enjoy your visit and e-mail me if you have questions, comments and critiques!

JMP

P.D. I took the picture above in December 1998, at the “Torres del Paine” National Park in Chile.