(BCM (UWA), BScHons (Massey), PhD (Massey))
Senior Lecturer
Director of Studies for 100-level Statistics
Pacific Island Liaison
Office: Science III, room 222
Tel +64 3 479 7772
Email tilman.davies@otago.ac.nz
About
Originally from Perth, Western Australia, I completed my doctoral degree at Massey University in 2011 before joining Otago. I’ve spent time living and working overseas, including stints in Denmark and the United States. My research has been supported by Marsden Fund grants and involves collaborators in industry and academia both here in New Zealand and internationally. I am the author of The Book of R, which I use for an introductory R workshop here at Otago.
For further details, please visit my personal website
Teaching responsibilities
My teaching responsibilities include:
- STAT 110 Statistical Methods
- STAT 260 Visualisation and Modelling in R
- STAT 372 Stochastic Modelling
- STAT 403 Case Studies in Statistics
Research Interests
I'm primarily interested in the smoothing and applied modelling of planar point patterns in space and space-time. Recent collaborations have also piqued an interest in developing Bayesian models for spatially varying phenomena.
My areas of research include:
- Kernel smoothing and density-ratios
- Computational statistics, R programming
- Planar point patterns, spatial statistics, geostatistics
- Applications in geographical epidemiology and biology
If you have a strong academic record and are interested in working with me as a postgraduate student on topics related to the above, get in touch.
Publications
Davies, T. M., Banerjee, S., Martin, A. P., & Turnbull, R. E. (2022). A nearest-neighbour Gaussian process spatial factor model for censored, multi-depth geochemical data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C, 71, 1014-1043. doi: 10.1111/rssc.12565
Baddeley, A., Davies, T. M., Hazelton, M. L., Rakshit, S., & Turner, R. (2022). Fundamental problems in fitting spatial cluster process models. Spatial Statistics. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.spasta.2022.100709
Crump, J. A., & Davies, T. M. (2022). Towards equitable scheduling of global health teleconferences: A spatial exploration of the world's population and health by time zone. BMJ Open, 12, e056696. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056696
Baddeley, A., Davies, T. M., Rakshit, S., Nair, G., & McSwiggan, G. (2022). Diffusion smoothing for spatial point patterns. Statistical Science, 37(1), 123-142. doi: 10.1214/21-STS825
Hazelton, M. L., & Davies, T. M. (2022). Pointwise comparison of two multivariate density functions. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 49, 1791-1810. doi: 10.1111/sjos.12565
Davies, T. M. (2016). The book of R: A first course in programming and statistics. San Francisco, CA: No Starch Press, 832p.
Authored Book - Research
Baddeley, A., Davies, T. M., Hazelton, M. L., Rakshit, S., & Turner, R. (2022). Fundamental problems in fitting spatial cluster process models. Spatial Statistics. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.spasta.2022.100709
Journal - Research Article
Baddeley, A., Davies, T. M., Rakshit, S., Nair, G., & McSwiggan, G. (2022). Diffusion smoothing for spatial point patterns. Statistical Science, 37(1), 123-142. doi: 10.1214/21-STS825
Journal - Research Article
Crump, J. A., & Davies, T. M. (2022). Towards equitable scheduling of global health teleconferences: A spatial exploration of the world's population and health by time zone. BMJ Open, 12, e056696. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-056696
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Banerjee, S., Martin, A. P., & Turnbull, R. E. (2022). A nearest-neighbour Gaussian process spatial factor model for censored, multi-depth geochemical data. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C, 71, 1014-1043. doi: 10.1111/rssc.12565
Journal - Research Article
Hazelton, M. L., & Davies, T. M. (2022). Pointwise comparison of two multivariate density functions. Scandinavian Journal of Statistics, 49, 1791-1810. doi: 10.1111/sjos.12565
Journal - Research Article
Baddeley, A., Nair, G., Rakshit, S., McSwiggan, G., & Davies, T. M. (2021). Analysing point patterns on networks: A review. Spatial Statistics, 42, 100435. doi: 10.1016/j.spasta.2020.100435
Journal - Research Article
Elson, R., Davies, T. M., Lake, I. R., Vivancos, R., Blomquist, P. B., Charlett, A., & Dabrera, G. (2021). The spatio-temporal distribution of COVID-19 infection in England between January and June 2020. Epidemiology & Infection, 149, e73. doi: 10.1017/s0950268821000534
Journal - Research Article
Elson, R., Davies, T. M., Jenkins, C., Vivancos, R., O'Brien, S. J., & Lake, I. R. (2020). Application of kernel smoothing to estimate the spatio-temporal variation in risk of STEC O157 in England. Spatial & Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, 32, 100305. doi: 10.1016/j.sste.2019.100305
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., & Lawson, A. B. (2019). An evaluation of likelihood-based bandwidth selectors for spatial and spatiotemporal kernel estimates. Journal of Statistical Computation & Simulation, 89(7), 1131-1152. doi: 10.1080/00949655.2019.1575066
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Schofield, M. R., Cornwall, J., & Sheard, P. W. (2019). Modelling multilevel spatial behaviour in binary-mark muscle fibre configurations. Annals of Applied Statistics, 13(3), 1329-1347. doi: 10.1214/18-AOAS1214
Journal - Research Article
Rakshit, S., Davies, T., Moradi, M. M., McSwiggan, G., Nair, G., Mateu, J., & Baddeley, A. (2019). Fast kernel smoothing of point patterns on a large network using two-dimensional convolution. International Statistical Review, 87(3), 531-556. doi: 10.1111/insr.12327
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., & Baddeley, A. (2018). Fast computation of spatially adaptive kernel estimates. Statistics & Computing, 28(4), 937-956. doi: 10.1007/s11222-017-9772-4
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Flynn, C. R., & Hazelton, M. L. (2018). On the utility of asymptotic bandwidth selectors for spatially adaptive kernel density estimation. Statistics & Probability Letters, 138, 75-81. doi: 10.1016/j.spl.2018.02.067
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Marshall, J. C., & Hazelton, M. L. (2018). Tutorial on kernel estimation of continuous spatial and spatiotemporal relative risk. Statistics in Medicine, 37(7), 1191-1221. doi: 10.1002/sim.7577
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Jones, K., & Hazelton, M. L. (2016). Symmetric adaptive smoothing regimens for estimation of the spatial relative risk function. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 101, 12-28. doi: 10.1016/j.csda.2016.02.008
Journal - Research Article
Farrell, S. F., Davies, T. M., & Cornwall, J. (2015). Use of clinical anatomy resources by musculoskeletal outpatient physiotherapists in Australian Public Hospitals: A cross-sectional study. Physiotherapy Canada, 67(3), 273-279. doi: 10.3138/ptc.2014-38E
Journal - Research Article
Fletcher, J. G. R., Stringer, M. D., Briggs, C. A., Davies, T. M., & Woodley, S. J. (2015). CT morphometry of adult thoracic intervertebral discs. European Spine Journal, 24(10), 2321-2329. doi: 10.1007/s00586-015-3925-y
Journal - Research Article
Smith, B. A., Davies, T. M., & Higham, C. F. W. (2015). Spatial and social variables in the Bronze Age Phase 4 cemetery of Ban Non Wat, Northeast Thailand. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 4, 362-370. doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2015.10.003
Journal - Research Article
Taylor, B. M., Davies, T. M., Rowlingson, B. S., & Diggle, P. J. (2015). Bayesian inference and data augmentation schemes for spatial, spatiotemporal and multivariate log-Gaussian Cox processes in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 63(7). Retrieved from http://www.jstatsoft.org/v63/i07
Journal - Research Article
Cornwall, J., Davies, T. M., & Lees, D. (2013). Student injuries in the dissecting room. Anatomical Sciences Education, 6(6), 404-409. doi: 10.1002/ase.1363
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M. (2013). Jointly optimal bandwidth selection for the planar kernel-smoothed density-ratio. Spatial & Spatio-temporal Epidemiology, 5, 51-65. doi: 10.1016/j.sste.2013.04.001
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M. (2013). Scaling oversmoothing factors for kernel estimation of spatial relative risk. Epidemiologic Methods, 2(1), 67-83. doi: 10.1515/em-2012-0008
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., & Bryant, D. J. (2013). On circulant embedding for Gaussian random fields in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 55(9). Retrieved from http://www.jstatsoft.org/v55/i09
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., & Hazelton, M. L. (2013). Assessing minimum contrast parameter estimation for spatial and spatiotemporal log-Gaussian Cox processes. Statistica Neerlandica, 67(4), 355-389. doi: 10.1111/stan.12011
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Cornwall, J., & Sheard, P. W. (2013). Modelling dichotomously marked muscle fibre configurations. Statistics in Medicine, 32(24), 4240-4258. doi: 10.1002/sim.5806
Journal - Research Article
Taylor, B. M., Davies, T. M., Rowlingson, B. S., & Diggle, P. J. (2013). lgcp: Inference with spatial and spatio-temporal log-Gaussian Cox processes in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 52(4). Retrieved from http://www.jstatsoft.org/v52/i04
Journal - Research Article
Zhang, Z., Chen, D., Chen, Y., Davies, T. M., Vaillancourt, J.-P., & Liu, W. (2012). Risk signals of an influenza pandemic caused by highly pathogenic avian influenza subtype H5N1: Spatio-temporal perspectives. Veterinary Journal, 192(3), 417-421. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2011.08.012
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Hazelton, M. L., & Marshall, J. C. (2011). sparr: Analyzing spatial relative risk using fixed and adaptive kernel density estimation in R. Journal of Statistical Software, 39(1). Retrieved from http://www.jstatsoft.org/v39/i01/paper
Journal - Research Article
Sanson, R. L., Harvey, N., Garner, M. G., Stevenson, M. A., Davies, T. M., Hazelton, M. L., … Owen, K. (2011). Foot and mouth disease model verification and 'relative validation' through a formal model comparison. Revue Scientifique et Technique, 30(2), 527-540. doi: 10.20506/rst.30.2.2051
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., & Hazelton, M. L. (2010). Adaptive kernel estimation of spatial relative risk. Statistics in Medicine, 29(23), 2423-2437. doi: 10.1002/sim.3995
Journal - Research Article
Hazelton, M. L., & Davies, T. M. (2009). Inference based on kernel estimates of the relative risk function in geographical epidemiology. Biometrical Journal, 51(1), 98-109. doi: 10.1002/bimj.200810495
Journal - Research Article
Davies, T. M., Sheard, P. W., & Cornwall, J. (2016). Comment on Makino et al. and observations on spatial modeling. Anatomical Science International, 91(4), 423-424. doi: 10.1007/s12565-016-0347-9
Journal - Professional & Other Non-Research Articles
Redmond, A. K., Davies, T. M., & Schofield, M. R. (2019). Hierarchical modelling for spatial muscle fibre configurations. Proceedings of the New Zealand Statistical Association Conference. (pp. 47). Retrieved from https://www.otago.ac.nz/nzsa/programme-and-speakers/
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Davies, T. M., Hill, P., & Summerby-Murray, D. (2015). Kernel density-ratio surfaces for estimation of geographical relative risk, with an application to pneumococcal disease and radiological pneumonia in The Gambia. Proceedings of the 8th Annual Otago International Health Research Network (OIHRN) Conference. (pp. 11). Retrieved from http://dnmeds.otago.ac.nz/departments/psm/research/international_hlth
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Cornwall, J., Davies, T., & Lees, D. (2014). Student injuries in the dissecting room. Clinical Anatomy, 27(8), (pp. 1359). doi: 10.1002/ca.22459
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Cornwall, J., Davies, T., Louw, G., Zimanyi, M., Armstrong, S., Wetchateng, T., … Stringer, M. (2014). The demographic characteristics of body donors: An intercontinental study. Annals of Anatomy, 196(Suppl.), (pp. 225). doi: 10.1016/j.aanat.2014.05.035
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Farrell, S. F., Davies, T. M., & Cornwall, J. (2014). The use of clinical anatomy resources by musculoskeletal outpatient physiotherapists in New South Wales public hospitals. Clinical Anatomy, 27(8), (pp. 1352). doi: 10.1002/ca.22459
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Davies, T. (2013). Jointly optimal bandwidth selection for the planar kernel-smoothed density-ratio. Proceedings of the Joint New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA) and Operations Research Society of New Zealand (ORSNZ) Conference: Analytics for a Changing World: From Data to Decisions. (pp. 53). Retrieved from https://secure.orsnz.org.nz/conf47/index.php
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Davies, T. M., Sheard, P. W., & Cornwall, J. (2013). Development of a novel statistical method to test spatial distribution of skeletal muscle fiber types. Clinical Anatomy, 26, (pp. 643). doi: 10.1002/ca.22235
Conference Contribution - Published proceedings: Abstract
Diggle, P., Taylor, B., Davies, T., & Rowlingson, B. (2011, March-April). Bayesian parameter estimation for the log-Gaussian Cox process. Poster session presented at the Inference For Epidemic-related Risk (InFER), Warwick, UK.
Conference Contribution - Poster Presentation (not in published proceedings)
Davies, T. (2020, November). Keeping things running smoothly: A collection of kernel-based collaborations. Verbal presentation at the New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA) Unconference, Auckland.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
Davies, T. (2009, September). On adaptive kernel estimates of spatially dependent disease risk. Verbal presentation at the New Zealand Statistical Association Conference, Wellington, New Zealand.
Conference Contribution - Verbal presentation and other Conference outputs
