Welcome
Welcome to my webpage! I’m still transitioning the page; pardon the mess.
I am an associate professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Baylor University.
Most of my work is in statistical computing and graphics, especially statistical software development in R. Current major projects involve statistical graphics (ggvfields, ggdensity and others to come), algebraic statistics (mpoly, algstat, latte, m2r) and Bayesian statistics for pharmaceutical clinical trials (proprietary). I also wrote the ggmap package with Hadley Wickham and maintain it when I have time.
Education
Ph.D. in Statistics | Rice University | 2011
M.A. in Statistics | Rice University | 2010
B.A. in Mathematics | University of Richmond | 2006
Experience
Associate Professor of Statistical Science, Baylor University | 2017 - present
Assistant Professor of Statistical Science, Baylor University | 2011 - 2017
Bio
I currently hold the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Statistical Science at Baylor University. Before coming to Baylor in 2011 I earned my doctorate from the Department of Statistics at Rice University in Houston, Texas. For my undergraduate degree I attended the University of Richmond and received my degree in mathematics working primarily with Bill Ross.
During my undergraduate summers, Javier Rojo slowly turned me into a statistician through his fantastic REU RUSIS. While at Rice for my graduate studies I worked with Dr. Rojo as part of RUSIS teaching statistical computing and graphics during the summers, and he later became my doctoral thesis advisor. A program very dear to me, I spent five years with RUSIS as a student or teacher and was the program’s second Ph.D.
My research interests are wide ranging but generally revolve around statistical computing and graphics. My research right now focuses mostly on statistical graphics, algebraic statistics, and Bayesian biopharmaceutical statistics. I also maintain R’s ggmap package, which I co-authored with the inimitable Hadley Wickham. Theoretical research I have done recently involves algebraic pattern recognition, Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms for exact inference in discrete exponential family models, and double sampling procedures for count data.
Outside of Marrs McLean, my wife and I enjoy Latin dance, musical theater, and playing with our three daughters.