Events

Date: 6 November 2025   Time: 14:00 - 15:00

Location: Hybrid: Seminar Room MB-503, School of Mathematical Sciences, QMUL, or via the Teams link below

Global warming is always a hot topic and whatever side of the fence you sit on, you cannot deny the data that the climate is changing - regardless of attributing a cause to that. These changes have huge impacts on individual lives all over the world. In the UK we have had warmer summers and milder winters (at least in southern parts of the UK!) and more extreme weather events than earlier in the twentieth century. Most people have a storm, flooding or drought story, or know someone who has. In this talk, I will share some of my own stories about working with the data behind the headlines, mostly in temperature time series from across the globe. I will provide an introduction to the changepoint models I use to describe these temperature data and provide commentaries on working with environmental scientists and media engagement. From the statistical side, I am hoping that you will take away some insights into why changepoint models are useful, an intuition of (and some R packages for) how to apply these models to any data, and the key challenges you may come across in doing so. In littering my talk with anecdotes about interdisciplinary work, I am hoping to convey both the joys and realities of taking this approach to motivate those who haven't taken this path yet, whilst simultaneously building a shared connection with those who have.

Teams link