Dr Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita, a School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science graduate, has won a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds award.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) offers three annual awards to recognise and celebrate excellence in conservation science.
One of these is for the most outstanding PhD thesis in conservation science and the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science (SMSAS) is very pleased to announce that the 2015 winner is Dr Gurutzeta Guillera-Arroita, a SMSAS PhD student who graduated in 2012.
Guru was nominated by her supervisors, Professors Martin Ridout and Byron Morgan. Her thesis entitled: ‘Occupancy modelling: study design and models for data collected along transects’ was chosen because it already has a tangible impact on the conservation of a threatened species – the Sumatran tiger – and will contribute to the conservation of many others in future.
The judges were also impressed by Guru’s scientific productivity, with more than 20 publications to her name already.
Guru’s PhD research was funded by the SMSAS and the National Centre for Statistical Ecology (NCSE). One feature that made her study impressive was the breadth that it involved, having to understand ecology, statistics, mathematics and computing.
During her PhD, Guru travelled twice to Indonesia, to engage with the local conservation scientists and managers, and she also spent time in the rainforest of Sumatra assessing the field data collection methods.
Further details about the awards are on the RSPB website.