Brian Dennis
College of Natural Resources
Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources; Department of Statistical Sciences
Professor
Home Town:
Moscow, Idaho
Campus Locations: Moscow
With UI Since 1981
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Ph.D. Ecology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 1982.
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M.A. Statistics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, 1980.
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B.A. Fine Arts, Roger Williams College, Bristol, RI, 1973.
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Statistical Ecology
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Biometrics
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Mathematical Modeling
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Theoretical Ecology
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Conservation Biology
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Population Dynamics
M.A. (statistics) and Ph. D (ecology) from Penn State University. Scientific career has specialized in applications of statistics, mathematics, and computer simulation in ecology and natural resources management
Book:
- Dennis, B. 2012. The R Student Companion. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. (to be published Sep 19, 2012; the book explores potential uses of the computer package "R" in high school and college science and mathematics courses)
Seminal publications (>100 citations):
- Dennis, B., J.M. Ponciano, S.R. Lele, M.L. Taper, D.F. Staples. 2006. Estimating density dependence, process noise, and observation error. Ecological Monographs 76:323-341.
- Costantino, R.F., R.A. Desharnais, J.M. Cushing, and B. Dennis. 1997. Chaotic dynamics in an insect population. Science 275:389-391.
- Dennis, B., R.A. Desharnais, J.M. Cushing, and R.F. Costantino. 1995. Nonlinear demographic dynamics: mathematical models, statistical methods, and biological experiments. Ecological Monographs 65:261-281.
- Costantino, R.F., J.M. Cushing, B. Dennis, and R.A. Desharnais. 1995. Experimentally induced transitions in the dynamic behavior of insect populations. Nature 375:227-230.
- Dennis, B., and M.L. Taper. 1994. Density dependence in time series observations of natural populations: estimation and testing. Ecological Monographs 64:205-224.
- Nonlinear dynamics and chaos in ecology, an interdisciplinary, multi-university research project to investigate and document the influence of nonlinear dynamics phenomena, such as chaos, multiple stable attractors, limit cycles, and saddles, in ecological populations. 1993-2004. Website: http://caldera.calstatela.edu/nonlin/
- Population viability analysis, an ongoing study of how to improve mathematical models and statistical methods for assessing jeopardy and recovery of species at risk of extinction
- Population ecology in a stochastic world, an ongoing study of probabilistic forces affecting natural populations, the interactions of such randomness with ecological forces such as density dependence, competition, and predation, and the improvement of statistical methods for estimating the magnitudes of such forces.
Guest presentations in K-12 classrooms.
