Scott Anthony Sisson

Professor Scott Anthony Sisson is a leading academic at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), holding the position of Professor of Statistics and Data Science in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. He serves as Director of the UNSW Data Science Hub (uDASH) and Deputy Director of the UNSW AI Institute (UNSW.ai). Previously, he was Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS) and held leadership roles in the Australasian Society of Bayesian Analysis and Statistical Society of Australia.

• PhD in Statistics (Bristol University, 2002)
• MSc in Environmental Statistics and Systems (Lancaster University, 1997)
• BSc in Mathematics and Statistics (Lancaster University, 1996)

His research focuses on computational statistics and Bayesian inference, with expertise in machine learning, extreme value theory, and high-dimensional data analysis. He develops simulation-based algorithms for complex statistical problems and applies these to diverse scientific challenges like seagrass decline, urban flood modeling, and drug delivery systems. His recent work spans quantum computing for statistics, graphon modeling, and synthetic likelihood methods.

Scientific awards include:

• 2024 Fellow of the International Society of Bayesian Analysis
• 2023 Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics
• 2017 ARC Future Fellowship
• 2010 Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellowship
• 2006 John Yu Fellowship

His advising team has mentored students in statistical modeling, Bayesian computation, and applied data science. Grants from the Australian Research Council and industry collaborations support his research in government and scientific applications. He contributes as Associate Editor for Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics and Statistics and Computing.