W. John Braun

Professor

Mathematics, Statistics

Office: SCI 378
Phone: 250.807.8032
Email: john.braun@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Computational statistics, with applications to fire science; statistical process control; statistical education. Most recently, I have been focusing on visualization methodology, using a class of techniques called Data Sharpening.

Courses & Teaching

Modelling and Simulation. Predictive Modelling. Data Visualization.

Biography

Since completing my PhD in Statistics at the University of Western Ontario, I have held positions at a number of universities, including Western for 14 years where I attained the rank of Full Professor and was Chair of the Statistics Graduate Program for 5 years. In 2014, I took the opportunity to become Head of Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics and Statistics at UBC’s Okanagan campus. The following year I became Deputy Director of the Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute  (CANSSI).

My research in statistics has often been motivated by scientific problems, coming from psychology, biology, medicine, engineering and physics.  My methodological research is concerned with smoothing and inference techniques as they apply to data visualization and process monitoring.

Websites

R Tricks for Kids

Research Website

Data Visualization Laboratory Website

Rocky Mountain Data Science Network

Degrees

PhD University of Western Ontario, 1992
MSc University of Calgary, 1987
BSc (Hon.) University of Calgary, 1985

Selected Publications & Presentations

Wang, X.J., Thompson, R.J.R., Braun, W.J. and Woolford, D.G. Fitting a stochastic fire spread model to data.  ASCMO, 5 57-66, 2019.

Xiong, Y., Bingham, D., Braun, W.J., Hu, X.J. On the use of Moran’s I statistic with spatio-temporal observations.  Journal of Nonparametric Statistics, 31 244-267, 2018.

Albert-Green, A., Braun, W.J., Dean, C.B. and Miller, C. A hierarchical point process with application to storm cell modelling. Canadian Journal of Statistics, 47 46-64, 2019.

Hall, P.G., Braun, W.J. and Duchesne, T. Empirical Fourier methods for interval censored data.  Statistica Sinica, 28 2811-2822, 2018.

Braun, W.J., Hu, X.J. and Kang, X. Data sharpening guided by global constraint in local regression.  Statistica Sinica, 28 2733-2748, 2018.

Becker, D., Braun, W.J. and White, B.J.G. Interval-censored unimodal kernel density estimation via data sharpening. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 87 2023-2037, 2017.

Han, L. and Braun, W.J. Visualizing capability and stability on a single chart. Quality Technology and Quantitative Management, 14 454-477, 2017.

Braun, W.J. and Stafford, J. Multivariate density estimation for interval-censored data with application to a forest fire modelling problem. Environmetrics, 27 345-354, 2016.

Braun, W.J. Visualization of Evidence in Regression Analysis with the QR Decomposition. Computational Statistics, 30 907-927, 2015.

Han, L.S. and Braun, W.J. Block Bootstrap Calibration with Application to the Fire Weather Index. Communications in Statistics – Simulation and Computation, 44 647-665, 2015.

Albert-Green, A., Braun, W.J., Martell, D.L. and Woolford, D.G. Visualization Tools for Assessing the Markov Property: Sojourn Times in the Ontario Fire Weather Index. Environmetrics, 25 417-430, 2014.

Han, L.S. and Braun, W.J. Dionysus: A Stochastic Fire Growth Scenario Generator. Environmetrics, 25 431-442, 2014.

Braun, W.J. and Woolford, D.G., Assessing a stochastic fire spread simulator. Journal of Environmental Informatics, 22 1-12, 2013.

Braun, W.J., White, B.G. and Craig, G. R Tricks for Kids. Teaching Statistics, 2013. doi: 10.1111/test.12016

Professional Services/Affiliations/Committees

Deputy Director, Canadian Statistical Sciences Institute (CANSSI)
Leader, Rocky Mountain Data Science Network