Leslie New, an assistant professor of statistics, uses her analytical expertise to determine the impact human activities have on wildlife populations. Recently, she was instrumental in a research collaboration with Macquarie University and the New England Aquarium, in which she used state-space models to get to the bottom of the declining North Atlantic right whale population.
“The evidence we provide for the change in the species’ stage structure means that the models used to direct the U.S. government’s recovery and management plans are no longer valid, since they are based on assumptions no longer supported by the data,” New said.
That’s a game changer.
Her data-driven research also includes looking at the effects of multiple stressors on grey whales; understanding the potential impacts of extreme weather events on bowhead whales on the west coast (and what that means in the context of ongoing climate change); and better understanding the effects of sonar on a range of marine mammals through a project funded by the U.S. Navy.
