Rebecca Killick is a statistics professor visiting from Lancaster University, UK invited by UC Santa Cruz Professor Robert Lund. Killick’s research is in an area of statistics called nonstationary time series, dealing with data whose properties change over time.
Unlike stationary time series, where patterns are consistent, nonstationary data often exhibit trends, seasonal effects, structural breaks, and/or general inhomogeneities. This area is crucial for understanding and forecasting dynamic systems in fields like economics, climate science, and healthcare. To better understand these changes and what they mean, Kiilick develops novel statistical methodology that focuses on two areas: abrupt changes and slow changes.
“We live in a world where things constantly change, evolve, and adapt. Understanding these new phenomena can be challenging,” said Killick. “Often, a new method needs to be developed when new questions arise. I enjoy learning about the field we are working in to get to the crux of the problem or issue and thus develop sensible solutions.”
Killick finds that collaborating with researchers around the world is essential for tackling complex, global challenges. By bringing together diverse perspectives, expertise, and datasets from different regions, researchers can develop more robust and universally applicable models.
“I don’t think I would be doing this if I didn’t have that international perspective,” said Killick. “The value of international perspectives and different fields working together to solve shared issues or challenges is fascinating to me.”
In October of 2024, Killick, along with an international team of researchers, published a new study in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, reinforcing the broad scientific consensus that the planet is experiencing significant warming. However, the study presented an interesting perspective, showing that while global temperatures are rising, the rate of warming remains statistically steady. This work highlights the importance of precise statistical methods in climate science.
“Here at UC Santa Cruz, I am continuing some of the work noted in the study, focused on climate-related research and change over time,” Killick said. “I hope to learn if we are getting near tipping points where climatological norms, the averages of weather variables, are going to create new normals.”
Beyond their collaborative projects, Killick is teaching undergraduate and graduate students, sharing her expertise and fostering the next generation of statisticians, emphasizing the role of mathematics in solving complex, real-world problems.
Killick’s work at UC Santa Cruz will conclude in June 2025.
More Information
Rebecca Killick serves as editor-in-chief for the Journal of Statistical Software.
Learn more about Killick’s research at https://www.lancs.ac.uk/~killick/.