About me

I completed my PhD in Statistics in 2012 at the Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal, and my Habilitation (Agregação) in Mathematics, Specialization in Statistics and Stochastic Processes in 2019 at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal.

In 2013, I became a Professor at the Department of Statistics of the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. Between mid-2015 and December 2019, I was the Research Director of the Center for Applied Statistics and Data Analytics (CAST) at Tampere University, Finland. At the beginning of 2020, I founded the Statistical Learning Laboratory (SaLLy), a hub for statistical and data science research, training, and consultancy that brings together my research group, including some of the main collaborators and students. Follow SaLLy on Instagram and LinkedIn for up-to-date information on our activities.

Currently, I am a Visiting Professor at the Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

I am an ISI Elected member and currently:

• Director of the Statistical Learning Laboratory (SaLLy)

• President of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS; July 2023 –July 2025)

• President-Elect of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC; September 2023 – September 2025; President between September 2025 and September 2027)

• Council member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI, ex-officio, July 2023 –July 2025)

• Member of the Representative Council of the International Biometric Society (07/2021 - 06/2025)

• Member of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian Statistical Association (ABE) (09/2020 – 09/2024)

• Vice-Coordinator of the Specialization in Data Science and Big Data, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil (since 05/2018)

Some of my past position include:

• President-Elect of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS; July 2021 – July 2023)

• President of the Brazilian Region of the International Biometric Society (05/2018 – 09/2020; 09/2020 - 11/2022)

• (Founding) Chair of the Special Interest Group on Data Science of the International Statistical Institute (July 2020 – July 2023)

• Founder, Chairperson (between 01/2017 and 01/2019), and Past-Chairperson (between 02/2019 and 04/2021) of the Latin American Regional Section (LARS) of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC)

• Council member of the International Statistical Institute (between 08/2015 and 08/2019)

• Vice-President (08/2009-08/2011; 08/2011-08/2013) and Council member (08/2015-08/2019) of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics

• Member of the Scientific Board of the European PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies (SESS) (since 06/2016 - 12/2019)

• Member of the Scientific Board of the MSc program in Mathematics, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil (11/2018 – 11/2020; 11/2020 – 11/2022)

• Member of the Scientific Board of the BSc program in Statistics, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil (08/2022 – 10/2023)

• Head of the Department of Statistics of the Federal University of Bahia (10/2022 – 10/2023)

My research interests include the following:

• Statistical learning

• High-dimensional data modeling, low-rank approximations, and weighted low-rank approximations

• Time series forecasting

• Singular spectrum analysis

• Robust statistics

• Big data and visualization

• Modeling and analyzing Genotype-by-Environment interactions and QTL-by-Environment interactions

• Applications to plant sciences, genetics, finances, and environmental sciences

I have authored/coauthored more than 120 research articles, with more than 130 co-authors from 60 universities in 24 countries. Besides my activities as an editorial board member of several scientific journals, I am currently:

• Co-Editor of Computational Statistics (01/2021 - 12/2022)

• Co-Editor of the Brazilian Journal of Biometrics (01/2021 - 12/2022)

• Co-Editor of Biometrical Letters (since 2013)

• Managing Editor of SOIC – Statistics, Optimization, and Information Computing (since 213)

Please consider submitting your work to these journals.

Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KBtSLIEAAAAJ&hl=en

CV Lattes: http://lattes.cnpq.br/0029960374321970

Academic Education

• Habilitation in Mathematics, Specialization in Statistics and Stochastic Processes, Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal. Monograph title: Recent Advances in Singular Spectrum Analysis (2019)

• PhD in Statistics - Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal. Supervisors: Professor Stanisław Mejza and Professor João Tiago Mexia. Title: New strategies to detect and understand genotype-by-environment interactions and QTL-by-environment interactions (2012).

• MSc. in Statistics - Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, 2007. Supervisor: Professor João A. Branco. Title: Principal Components: The method and its generalizations (2007).

• BSc in Applied Mathematics, Specialization in Statistics (5 years degree), Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Nova University of Lisbon, 2003. Final mean of 15 values (2003).

Current Activities

• Visiting Professor, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (November 20, 2023 - May 31, 2024

• Head & Principal Investigator of the Statistical Learning Laboratory (SaLLy) (January 2020 – present)

• Coordinator of the proposal for a MSc and PhD program in Statistics and Data Science, Federal University of Bahia (October 2019 – present)

• President of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (August 2023 – August 2025)

• President-Elect of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (July 2021 – August 2023; President between August 2023 and August 2025)

• (Founding) Chair of the Special Interest Group on Data Science, of the International Statistical Institute (July 2021 – July 2023)

• Bolsista de Produtividade em Pesquisa - PQ-2, CNPq grant. (March 2023 – February 2026)

• Member of the Representative Council of the International Biometric Society (July 2021 – June 2025)

• Member of the Board of Directors of the Brazilian Statistical Association (September 2020 – September 2024)

• Vice-Coordinator and Co-Founder of the Specialization in Data Science and Big Data, Federal University of Bahia, Brazil (since May 2018)

• Leader of the CNPq research group “Bioestatística e Big Data” (Biostatistics and Big Data), recognized by the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil (since July 2014)

• Co-Editor of the journal Computational Statistics (01/2021 – 12/2023)

• Co-Editor of the journal Brazilian Journal of Biometrics (since January 2021)

• Co-Editor of the journal Biometrical Letters, the official journal of the Polish Biometric Society (since May 2013)

• Managing Editor of the journal Statistics, Optimization and Information Computing (since March 2013)

Relevant Past Activities

• Head of the Department of Statistics of the Federal University of Bahia (October 10, 2022 – October 31, 2023)

• Substitute of the Vice-Dean of the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics of the Federal University of Bahia (January 1, 2023 – December 31, 2023)

• President of the Brazilian Region of the International Biometric Society (May 2018 – September 2020; September 2020 – May 2022)

• Past-Chairman of the Latin American Regional Section (LARS) of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC) (January 2019 – December 2020)

• Member of the Executive Committee (Publication Officer) of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC) (August 2019 – August 2021)

• Chairman of the Latin American Regional Section (LARS) of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC) (January 2017 – December 2018)

• Member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Statistical Computing (IASC) (January 2017 – December 2018)

• Member of the Scientific Board of the European PhD in Socio-Economic and Statistical Studies (SESS), since September 2016

• Research Director of CAST – Center for Applied Statistics and Data Analytics, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland, from April 2015 to December 2019

• Visiting Professor, University of Tampere, Finland (from April 2015 to December 2019)

• Vice-President of the Brazilian Region of the International Biometric Society (May 2016 – May 2018)

• Council Member of the International Statistical Institute (August 2015 – August 2019)

• Council Member of the International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics (August 2015 – August 2019)

• Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, BA, Brazil (since April 2013)

• Chair of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) Young Statisticians Committee (since August 2013)

Research Stays and Research Appointments

• Research Director of CAST – Center for Applied Statistics and Data Analytics, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland, since April 2015.

• Lecturer and Guest Speaker, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta; Islamic University of Indonesia, Yogyakarta; Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta; IST Akprind, Yogyakarta; Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, October 22, 2016 to November 20, 2016.

• Visiting Professor, University of Tampere, Finland, April 2015 to December 2015.

• Research Associate, Centro de Matemática e Aplicações (CMA, Research Center of Mathematics and Applications) of Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Nova University of Lisbon, 2012–2015; Member of the research group on “Mathematical modeling in Ecology, Evolution and Genetics”, 2014–2015.

• From July to November 2013 - Researcher Associate at Universidade Europeia, Laureate International Universities, Portugal.

• From May 5, 2013 to May 11, 2013 - Visiting Fellow at Departamento de Estatística e Experimentação Agronômica, ESALQ, University of São Paulo, Brazil. Host: Professor Carlos Tadeu Dias.

• From September 2010 to March 2012 - Visiting Fellow/Research Assistant at Biometrics, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Host - Professor Fred van Eeuwijk.

• From September 2009 to June 2010 - Visiting Fellow/Research Assistant at Biometrics, Wageningen University, The Netherlands. Host - Professor Fred van Eeuwijk.

• From June to August of 2009 - Visiting PhD Student at Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland. Host - Professor Stanisław Mejza.

• From July 6, 2009, to July 10, 2009 - Research Stay at Department of Crop Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Host - Professor Christel Richter.

• From January to May of 2009 - Visiting Fellow at Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Host - Professor Hugh G. Gauch.

• From October to December of 2008 - Visiting PhD Student at Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Poznan University of Life Sciences, Poland. Host - Professor Stanisław Mejza.

• From February to July of 2008 - Visiting PhD Student at Department of Mathematical and Statistical Methods, Agricultural University of Poznan, Poland. Host - Professor Stanisław Mejza.

• From May 12, 2008, to May 16, 2008 - Research Stay at Department of Crop Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany. Host - Professor Christel Richter.