Bradley P. Carlin

Mayo Professor in Public Health

Division of Biostatistics

Dr. Carlin has a Ph.D. and M.S. in statistics from the University of Connecticut, and a B.S. in mathematics and actuarial science from the University of Nebraska. He is a member of the University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center. His teaching and research interests focus on the development of Bayes and empirical Bayes methods for spatial and spatio-temporal data, especially techniques which take advantage of modern computing power. Dr. Carlin's full CV is downloadable in pdf format.

Dr. Carlin's teaching page contains information and syllabi on University of Minnesota courses he teaches, while his software page contains some programs (mostly useful in spatial statistics) written in some user-friendly languages, especially

Dr. Carlin and his erstwhile senior colleague Dr. Tom Louis have just released the third edition of their textbook Bayesian Methods for Data Analysis , published by Chapman and Hall/CRC Press/Taylor and Francis. This latest version is aimed at MS and advanced undergraduates in math and statistics, and MS and PhD students in other fields who need to know how to fit high-dimensional statistical models to their datasets. The book includes a much gentler introduction to Bayesian hierarchical modeling, as well as a ton of new examples and WinBUGS code. Click to see how to order by phone or over the web (either directly from the publisher, where you can use the ASA member 15% discount code, 634LH, or via amazon.com). Potential instructors can request an inspection copy from Mr. Rob Calver at CRC. You can also click to see most of the data sets, WinBUGS, and R code used in the book. A handy solutions manual, primarily authored by Dr. Carlin's student Ms. Laura Hatfield, is now available for all instructors adopting the text! Finally here's a nice review of the book by Andrew Gelman, first author of the book's major competitor!
Dr. Carlin and his colleagues Dr. Sudipto Banerjee and Dr. Alan Gelfand have also coauthored a textbook, Hierarchical Modeling and Analysis for Spatial Data , published by Chapman and Hall/CRC Press. Click to see the book's table of contents (also available in .pdf format), how to order by phone or over the web (either directly from the publisher, CRC Press, or via amazon.com), and many of the data sets and WinBUGS programs used in the book. A list of typos in the first and second printings (corrected in the third and subsequent printings) is also available.
Upcoming presentations related to the books and the WinBUGS language:
Speaking of Bayes, here is the webpage devoted to the Bayesian Songbook, a collection of some of the material performed at the closing cabarets which follow the Valencia International Meetings on Bayesian Statistics . There are even videos of several Valencia 7 and 8 performances (including "Bayesian Believer") posted on Brad's YouTube page! You can also check out pictures and movies from the crazy ISBA 2000 Cabaret, the MCMSki 2005 party, or the JSM 2005 Dance Party, featuring the Space Heaters and the ASA All-Stars!
Some recent papers (may need to use "gunzip" before printing):

  1. Liang, S., Banerjee, S., and Carlin B.P., `` Bayesian wombling for spatial point processes,'' to appear Biometrics, 2009.

  2. Liang, S., Carlin B.P., and Gelfand, A.E., `` Analysis of Minnesota colon and rectum cancer point patterns with spatial and non-spatial covariate information,'' Annals of Applied Statistics, 3, 943--962.

  3. Ma, H., Carlin, B.P., and Banerjee, S., `` Hierarchical and joint site-edge methods for Medicare hospice service region boundary analysis,'' to appear Biometrics, 2010.

  4. Spiegelhalter, D.J., Best, N.G., Carlin, B.P., and van der Linde, A., `` Bayesian measures of model complexity and fit,'' (with discussion and rejoinder) J. Roy. Statist. Soc., Ser. B, 64, 583-639, 2002. (Click to see the first three authors carefully describing their work at the Valencia 6 confererence, and all four authors (in the proper order!) celebrating at the pub after reading their paper at an RSS Ordinary Meeting on March 13, 2002.)

You can also get copies of other papers from the U of M Biostat Research Report ftp server. Or, check out the Markov Chain Monte Carlo Preprint Service at the University of Cambridge, U.K. For older articles, search the JSTOR archive.

Click on this picture of my three adorable boys, Sam (now age 14), Josh (now age 12), and Nate (now age 8) to see the family photo gallery! You also visit the homepage of my spouse, Caroline S. Carlin, PhD, since she is now a faculty member in Applied Economics!
Click here to visit my music page, which contains .mp3 files and lyrics for a few covers, song parodies, and even an original composition! My musical activities include being contemporary music coordinator for Good Sam United Methodist in Edina, coordinator/trombonist for the pep band for Minnesotans for Nebraska that plays for every Nebraska game at Joe Senser's in Bloomington, and, most recently, keyboardist and backing vocalist for Bacon's Rebellion, the band led by Twin Cities singer/songwriter Pat Bacon.
Speaking of Nebraska, check out a picture and a poster of the college football "Team of the 90's" (national champions `94, `95, `97), the Nebraska Cornhuskers! (In the picture, that's Miami QB Frank Costa lying on his back, having just been sacked again during the fourth quarter of the 1995 Orange Bowl.) Hear live play-by- play of Husker games, and see huskerpedia.com for team updates, schedules, game summaries, and more!

Here is Brad's page on how the Huskers are doing versus the spread this season. Also, you may wish to check out Rudy Moser's page on the probabilities of all the Huskers' possible final win-loss records this season!

Relatedly, here is Tom Adams' page developing ideas originally published by me and David Breiter in Chance magazine on optimal strategies for playing NCAA basketball pools! Also, here's a short essay on tournament upsets (and whether they're really all that surprising) that I wrote for the New York Times in March, 2004.

You can also catch up on the lastest in college football generally via ESPNET/SportsZone or USA Today. The latter features the latest Sagarin ratings of team strengths, either by team or by conference.

Some of Brad's favorite web sites...

Brad Carlin
Division of Biostatistics
Mayo Mail Code 303
School of Public Health
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0392 U.S.A.
email: brad[*at*]biostat[*dot*]umn[*dot*]edu
phone: (612) 624-6646; fax: (612) 626-0660

Last updated: April 15, 2007, when I should have been doing committee work.
These pages continually under construction - please excuse the mess...

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those its author. The contents of this page have not been approved by the University of Minnesota, Garrison Keillor, or Orlando "Tubby" Smith. Ya you betcha.

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