Robin Maree Turner (born 1976) is a New Zealand

statistician A statistician is a person who works with Theory, theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private sector, private and public sectors. It is common to combine statistical knowledge with expertise in other subjects, a ...

, and is a full professor at the

University of Otago The University of Otago () is a public university, public research university, research collegiate university based in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. Founded in 1869, Otago is New Zealand's oldest university and one of the oldest universities in ...

, specialising in applying biostatistics to health-related research. She is the director of the Biostatistics Centre in the School of Medicine.

Academic career

Having wanted to be an astronaut as a child, and then turning her attention to astronomy, Turner initially studied physics, astronomy and mathematics at the

University of Canterbury The University of Canterbury (UC; ; postnominal abbreviation ''Cantuar.'' or ''Cant.'' for ''Cantuariensis'', the Latin name for Canterbury) is a public research university based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was founded in 1873 as Canterbur ...

. Turner then completed a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

titled ''Independent component analysis of personality and symptoms of depression and statistical parametric mapping of personality and brain function'' also at Canterbury. Her research was supervised by Irene Hudson. After living in Australia for twelve years, where she worked at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

, and the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

, Turner then returned to New Zealand to join the faculty of the University of Otago in 2017. She was promoted to full professor in 2022. She is the inaugural Director of the Otago School of Medicine Biostatistics Centre. Turner's research focuses on applying biostatistical methods to health-related research. She works across a variety of health-related areas, including epidemiology of respiratory viruses, risk factors for chronic disease, and how to improve the follow-up and monitoring of cancer patients. She has also worked on methods for designing clinical trails to allow the effect of patient treatment preferences to be assessed, and is interested in investigating the accuracy of diagnostic tests.

Personal life

Turner is a keen bagpiper.

Selected works

* * * * * * * *

References

External links

*
Approaching significance
', Inaugural professorial lecture by Robin Turner, 6 April 2023, via YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Robin New Zealand academics New Zealand women academics Academic staff of the University of Otago University of Canterbury alumni New Zealand statisticians Biostatisticians 1976 births Living people