David Warton

Professor David Warton, based at the School of Mathematics & Statistics, University of New South Wales, is a leading ecological statistician advancing data analysis methods in ecology. He leads the Eco-Stats group, which has secured over $9M in ARC funding, and founded Stats Central, the UNSW statistical consulting unit. His cross-disciplinary work spans methodological development for multivariate analysis, species distribution modeling, and ecological theory.

Key research areas include:

• Multivariate abundance data analysis
• Species distribution modeling with point processes
• High-dimensional statistical methods in community ecology
• Machine learning applications in ecological contexts
• Model selection and error-in-variables regression

Recent publications (2023-2025) focus on spatiotemporal modeling, computational innovations for ecological data, and clinical applications of statistical methods. His work emphasizes bridging statistical theory with real-world ecological challenges, particularly in biodiversity and climate change impacts.

Scientific awards include the Christopher Heyde Medal (2014), Fellow of the Royal Society of NSW (2020), and recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher (2019-22). He actively supervises students in ecological statistics and machine learning applications.