Environmental Statistics

The emphasis in environmental statistics begins with a thorough grounding in theoretical and applied statistics, because virtually all of statistics gets used somewhere in the environmental sciences. Students in the department can complement their basic theory and methods courses with statistics courses focused on issues of relevance to the environmental sciences, have access to a variety of relevant courses elsewhere at Oregon State University, and may choose to focus their research activities on problems arising in the environmental sciences. Three of the department's courses are especially focused on issues of importance to the environmental sciences: Sampling aspects of estimating the size of a natural population of mobile organisms, such as a population of birds, whales or other animals (ST 573); sampling aspects of stationary environmental resources such as streams, lakes and estuaries (ST 571); and quantitative ecology (ST 535). Each of these courses ordinarily is taught by faculty with substantial experience in the area. Most of the courses offered by the department include topics relevant to the environmental sciences; illustrations and problems are drawn from many areas of application with an ample representation from the environmental sciences.

Current and emeritus faculty and graduates of the department have made substantial contributions to applying statistics to diverse aspects of the environmental sciences. One of the ten EPA research laboratories is located on the Oregon State University campus. Faculty and students in the department have had a variety of associations with that facility; currently eight students and two faculty are actively involved with work originating and funded there; over half of the faculty have collaborated with projects there at sometime. Many other opportunities exist for working with forestry, water quality, fisheries, wildlife.