j-ISBA Peer Mentoring Scheme
“Researchers supporting other researchers”

Peer mentoring

Welcome to the j-ISBA Peer Mentoring Scheme. Peer mentoring is an opportunity for you to be paired online with another young researcher in the field, providing a friendly and secure environment where to seek support and guidance.

Peer mentors are j-ISBA members who have volunteered to join the scheme. Based on their experiences, they will be able to offer you advice on how to navigate the uncertainties and difficulties that may arise during your early years in research.

The j-ISBA Peer Mentoring Scheme is meant to provide advice on academic matters, such as
  • how to relate to your supervisor
  • how to deal with deadlines
  • the job market
  • career choices between industry and academia
  • or anything else you would be more comfortable asking to a peer than a senior.
    • Please note that our volunteers cannot provide help with mental health issues.

    Accessing peer mentoring is extremely simple! Just look through the list of available peer mentors for the one that may best match your needs, and contact them via email. After being paired with your peer mentor, you will then be able to schedule a first virtual meeting.

    If you would like to volunteer as a peer-mentor, you can contanct j-ISBA at jisba.section@gmail.com.

    Peer-mentors

    Alejandra Avalos Pacheco

    Current position: Assistant professor (tenure track), JKU Linz, Austria
    Degree: PhD in Statistics, University of Warwick (in collaboration with the University of Oxford)
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. David Rossell and Prof. Richard Savage
    Research Areas: applied statistical modelling in the Social Sciences and Biomedicine, high-dimensional inference, heterogenous-data integration, computational strategies, dimensionality reduction, graphical models, clinical trials
    Email: alejandra.avalos_pacheco@jku.at
    Webpage: Link

    Marta Catalano

    Current position: Assistant Professor, Luiss University in Rome
    Degree: Ph.D. in Statistics, Bocconi University
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Antonio Lijoi and Prof. Igor Prünster
    Research Areas: Bayesian Nonparametrics
    Email: mcatalano@luiss.it
    Webpage: Link

    Jack Jewson

    Current position: Senior Lecturer, Department of Economics and Business Statistics, Monash University, Australia
    Degree: University of Warwick, Department of Statistics, UK
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Jim Q. Smith (Warwick) and Chris Holmes (Oxford)
    Research Areas: Generalised Bayesian Updating, Robustness, and Variable and Model Selection
    Email: Jack.jewson@monash.edu
    Webpage: Link

    Samuel Livingstone

    Current position: Associate professor, Statistical Science, University College London (UCL)
    Degree: PhD Statistics, UCL (2016)
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Mark Girolami and Prof. Alex Beskos
    Research Areas: MCMC, Markov chains, Bayesian computation, Bayesian modelling in health applications
    Email: samuel.livingstone@ucl.ac.uk
    Webpage: Link

    Sally Paganin

    Current position:Assistant Professor (The Ohio State University)
    Degree: Ph.D. in Statistical Sciences, University of Padua
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Bruno Scarpa and Prof. Amy Herring (co-Supervisor)
    Research Areas: Bayesian nonparametrics, latent variables models, Bayesian computational methods and software
    Email: paganin.1@osu.edu
    Webpage: Link

    Francesca Panero

    Current position: Assistant Professor in Statistics (tenure track), Sapienza University of Rome
    Degree: PhD in Statistics, University of Oxford
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Francois Caron and Prof. Judith Rousseau
    Research Areas: Bayesian nonparametrics; complex networks; Gaussian processes; fairness in ML; disclosure risk assessment
    Email: francesca.panero@uniroma1.it
    Webpage: Link

    Tommaso Rigon

    Current position: Assistant Professor of Statistical Science, University of Milano-Bicocca
    Degree: Ph.D. in Statistics, Bocconi University
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Igor Prünster and Prof. Antonio Lijoi
    Research Areas: applied Bayesian modeling; Bayesian clustering; Bayesian nonparametrics; computational statistics; generalized Bayes; functional data analysis; mixture models; species sampling models.
    Email: tommaso.rigon@unimib.it
    Webpage: Link

    Massimiliano Russo

    Current position: Assistant Professor
    Degree: PhD in Statistical Sciences
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Bruno Scarpa
    Research Areas: Bayesian statistics, computational statistics, pharmacoepidemiology
    Email: russo.325@osu.edu
    Webpage: Link

    Louis Sharrock

    Current position: Senior Postdoctoral Research Associate, Lancaster University
    Degree: PhD in Statistics, Imperial College London Ph.D. Supervisor: Dr Nikolas Kantas
    Research Areas: Monte Carlo Methods, Stochastic Processes, Interacting Particle Systems, Simulation-Based Inference, Wasserstein Gradient Flows, Statistical Machine Learning
    Email: l.sharrock@lancaster.ac.uk
    Webpage: Link

    Nikola Surjanovic

    Current position: PhD Candidate, University of British Columbia
    Ph.D. Supervisor: Prof. Alexandre Bouchard-Côté and Prof. Trevor Campbell
    Research Areas: Scalable Bayesian inference and machine learning
    Email: nikola.surjanovic@stat.ubc.ca
    Webpage: Link