All are welcome to an invited seminar by Dr. Glenn Johnson, President of Tramontane, Inc. The title is: “Multivariate Data Analysis in Environmental Forensics” The seminar will be from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 22, 2014, in WEB L102. There will be light refreshments afterwards.
Abstract:
Multivariate statistics are usually thought of in context of scientific research and academia, but these methods are often key aspects of more commercial science/engineering projects. Environmental litigation support is one of these. Environmental arbitration and litigation often focus on identifying sources of chemical contamination, determining who pays for damages, and allocating cleanup cost among multiple potentially responsible parties. This in turn often hinges on a scientist’s ability to unravel complex chemical patterns within large data sets, and then communicate their findings lucidly to an audience of non-scientists. In litigation/arbitration context, this professional niche has come to be known as environmental forensics or chemical fingerprinting. Multivariate pattern recognition methods often play a major role. This presentation will provide an overview of several multivariate methods used environmental litigation support (with case-studies) along with a few tips, considerations, and caveats for both the multivariate statistics zealot and the intimidated skeptic.
Biography:
Glenn Johnson is a geologist, a Research Associate Professor at the Energy and Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah, and adjunct faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is also involved with two small companies, spun off from research with which he was involved at the University. He is President of Tramontane, Inc., a software company in Salt Lake City that markets statistics and data analysis software to biostratigraphers in the oil industry. His company GeoChem Metrix, provides consulting services to clients involved in environmental litigation. Glenn has served as an expert witness in a number of environmental litigation matters involving multivariate statistics and environmental chemistry. Prior to coming to the University of Utah in 1995, he spent seven years in environmental consulting/engineering in the Philadelphia area. Glenn received his Ph.D. Geology from the University of South Carolina, his M.S. Geology from the University of Delaware, and has bachelor degrees in music and geology from East Carolina University.