معرفی
Laura Cowen is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Victoria, specializing in ecological statistics with a focus on capture-recapture methods. Her work addresses real-world challenges in wildlife, fisheries, and public health, including estimating population parameters for species like seabirds and fishery populations, and modeling hidden human populations such as injection drug users and homeless individuals. She leads the Cowen Lab, committed to interdisciplinary collaboration and equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives.
Her research integrates statistical methods with ecological and public health applications, including tag loss modeling, hidden Markov models, and large-scale data analysis. She collaborates with diverse fields such as microbiology, sociology, and anthropology. Key projects include estimating salmon exploitation rates, California sea cucumber movement, and lemur population viability in fragmented habitats.
Cowen received her PhD from Simon Fraser University and has held roles in initiatives like the VADA (Visualization and Data Analytics) team and the WHALE program at SFU. She was awarded the 2025 Bob Riffenburgh Award for bridging statistical ecology and public health applications, including pandemic modeling and serotype occupancy analysis. Her lab emphasizes fostering an inclusive environment and supports Indigenous student initiatives through AISES chapter formation and travel awards.
