Andrew B. Whetten
Research Associate
Expertise
Interpretable Machine Learning • Population Monitoring • Data Integration • Survival Analysis • Animal Movement Models
I am an applied statistician supporting the eBird Status and Trends and Conservation Science teams. I enjoy pushing the limits of interpretable machine learning and survival analysis methodology for participatory science data! My research spans topics including animal movement, disease management in wildlife populations, data integration from species monitoring programs.
I had never paid attention to a bird with any level of interest until after my master’s degree when I was chased by a pair of breeding Sandhill Cranes on a trail run in Wisconsin along the Ice Age Trail. I have watched birds intently ever since!
My interest watching flyovers and courtship displays of Sandhill Cranes in Wisconsin slowly transformed into a fascination with all birds and a desire to understand how they move, where they occur, how that information is collected, and what it can tell us about the status of a species.
Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Mathematics (specialization in statistics)
M.S., Utah State University, Statistics
B.S., Weber State University, Applied Mathematics
Fun Fact
I will lay in mud any day of the week to photograph shorebirds.
