Isabella Verdinelli

When I started my degree in Statistics, long ago, at the University of Rome in Italy, I would never have imagined where Statistics would have brought me. Years later here I am, teaching in an American University. But I am still in contact with colleagues and students back in Italy, where I often visit in the summer. I also studied in England and I did research with many different people from different countries. The nice thing about all this is that I can say I have statistical friends all over the world.

Statistics to me is a lot of fun and excitement. It is great to try to discover new ways to solve problems, and to know that a statistician can help in so many different places. The topic that interests me the most is how to design an experiment. The good point about Experimental Design is that one can apply the theory to the most diverse fields: from clinical trials, to reliability, to quality control. It is important to try to account for the special needs that are specific to every different field, and the Bayesian approach to Statistics has much to offer in this direction.

Since I have been in the US, I have become more and more interested in applications. This is an area where Bayesian methods can be very useful. Now that ways to overcome computational difficulties are more widely available, I and others hope to expand the practice of Bayesian Experimental Design.

Some Related Publications

Verdinelli, I. (1996). Bayesian Design for the Normal Linear Model with Unknown Error Variance. Technical Report no. 647. Department of Statistics, Carnegie-Mellon University.

Verdinelli, I. and Wasserman, L.A. (1996). Bayesian Goodness of fit Testing using Infinite Dimensional Exponential Families. Technical Report no. 640. Department of Statistics, Carnegie-Mellon University.

Verdinelli, I. and Wasserman, L.A. (1996). Bayes Factors, Nuisance Parameters and Imprecise Tests. Bayesian Statistics, 5, J.M. Bernardo, J.O. Berger, A.P. Dawid, and A.F.M. Smith eds. pp. 765-771. Claredon Press, Oxford.

Chaloner, K. and Verdinelli, I. (1995) "Bayesian Experimental Design: A Review," Statistical Science, 10, pp. 237-304.

Verdinelli, I. and Wasserman, L.A. (1995) "Computing Bayes Factors by Using a Generalization of the Savage-Dickey density ratio," Journal of the American Statistical Association, 90, pp. 614-618.