Dear Allstater,

I should be grateful if you would bring the following advert to the
attention of any likely final year students or recent graduates...

Thanks, Robert.
=====================================================================
Dr Robert G. Aykroyd,
Department of Statistics,
University of Leeds,
LEEDS, LS2 9JT,  UK.



UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

DEPARTMENT OF STATISTICS

EPSRC/CASE PhD Studentship

A WAVELET-LIFTING APPROACH TO SPATIAL-TEMPORAL PREDICTION APPLIED TO
CROP MONITORING

The Department of Statistics, in collaboration with the Central Science
Laboratory York, invites applications for a fully funded EPSRC/CASE PhD
studentship. The studentship is available for up to 3.5  years and will
cover fees and maintenance. The maintenance allowance is at the level
of 15,000 pounds per year plus the possibility of a further statistics
enhancement of up to 2,000 pounds per year.

PROJECT OUTLINE
Defra have funded the monitoring of pests and diseases across a wide
variety of important crops over the last three decades. In particular,
the Central Science Laboratory have access to a unique database
containing records of pest numbers, incidence and severity of disease
(taken at various time intervals) and effectiveness of crop management
practice. The aim is to analyse the data to predict risk to the crops,
seasonal variation in this risk and the effectiveness of control
strategies, to alert farmers of emerging threats and advise on
appropriate actions.

Statistically, the problem we wish to address is one of describing
the densities of key environmental quantities over a large and
geographically diverse region given measurements on an irregular
grid.  In some cases, several different quantities are measured
(often on different grids), resulting in several densities or
response surfaces. Further, for some data sets, these measurements
are made at irregular time points, creating a complex three-
dimensional data set.  Once these response surfaces are estimated,
they will be used to predict the incidence of pest explosions or
other undesirable events. Both logistic regression and Bayesian
modelling will be considered as methods of making these predictions.

In addition, you will receive training in a wide variety of modern
applied statistical techniques, computing and other transferable
skills, and there is the opportunity to attend courses and conferences
in the UK and overseas.

The studentship is open to UK home candidates. Applicants should
have, or expect to obtain, at least an upper second class honours
degree (or equivalent) in mathematics, statistics or related subject.

Note that standard EPSRC regulations apply to this studentship.

For further details see the departmental web pages:
                      www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/statistics
the School of Mathematics Postgraduate brochure:
         www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/school/postgraduate/BrocPDF4web.pdf
and the Central Science Laboratory web site pages:
                             www.csl.gov.uk/

Interested candidates should contact one of the following:
Dr Robert G Aykroyd                or Dr Stuart Barber
Tel: 0113 343 5167;                   Tel: 0113 343 5146
[log in to unmask]              [log in to unmask]
www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/~robert         www.maths.leeds.ac.uk/~stuart

Department of Statistics,
University of Leeds,
Leeds, LS2 9JT