I like applied work and have even done a little:

Bridge loadings.


Zidek, James V., Navin, Francis, P. D. and Lockhart, R. A. (1979). Statistics of extremes: an alternate method with application to bridge design codes. Technometrics, 21 185--191.

This paper uses the traditional extreme value upper bound on tail probabilities to estimate the worst loading to be expected in the next 40 years on a bridge (the First Narrows Bridge in Vancouver -- the Lion's Gate Bridge).

Finding downed aircraft


Guttorp, P. and Lockhart, R. A. (1988). On finding the source of a signal--a Bayesian analysis. J. Amer. Statist. Soc., 83 322--330. PDF

A paper on finding downed aircraft. The paper also looks at Bayesian outlier deletion/detection. I think this paper continues to have some value (not in finding aircraft, I suspect) in demonstrating that it is actually easier to model directional data with directional models than with linear models like the Gaussian distribution even when the directional errors are so small that the Gaussian approximation to the von Mises distribution.

Thermoluminescence Dating


I have had two students work on this problem leading to one publication. Chandanie Perera is currently working on the problem of combining data at several temperatures on the so-called plateau.

Berger, G., Kuo, J. and Lockhart, R.A. (1988). Regression and error analysis applied to dose response curves in Thermoluminescence dating. Nuclear Tracks Radiat. Meas, 13 177--184.

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Email comments or suggestions to Richard Lockhart (lockhart@sfu.ca)