Antonio Possolo, Ph.D.

Born in Lisboa, Portugal, a naturalized U.S. citizen, living in the U.S. since 1978, earned a Licenciate in Geology from the Classical University of Lisboa, Portugal, and a Ph.D. in statistics from Yale University (under John Hartigan’s guidance).

Pre-doctoral professional engagements

Lecturer in the Classical University of Lisboa
Geologist of the Geological Survey of Portugal
Research Assistant to John Hartigan (Yale)
Teaching Assistant for Frank Anscombe (Yale)
Research Assistant to Felix Chayes (Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington)

Post-doctoral professional engagements

Assistant Professor in the statistics departments of Princeton University and of the University of Washington in Seattle
Associate Technical Fellow of The Boeing Company (1989-2000)
Statistician of The General Electric Company (2000-2006)
Chief of NIST’s Statistical Engineering Division since October 1st, 2006

Professional interests

spatial statistics
point processes
environmental remote sensing
measurement uncertainty
foundations of probability theory and of statistical inference

Other interests

classical music (romantic repertoire and Bel canto opera)
literature
soccer

Awards

Secretarial Honor Award, U.S. Department of Energy, 2011 — In recognition of your contributions to the Flow Rate Technical Group / Nodal Analysis Team's swift and effective response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill [...] helping to speed the ultimate solution and reduce the environmental cost of the disaster.

U.S. Geological Survey Director's Award, 2010 — for exemplary service to the Nation in relation with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill: your answers and insights helped guide important decisions and made a very real and positive difference during the response to this unprecedented oil spill event.

Gold Medal (Scientific/Engineering Achievement), U. S. Department of Commerce, 2010 — for extraordinary dedication and technical achievements in the application of statistical methods to measurement science to characterize and improve the estimates of areas dedicated to illicit coca cultivation.

Recent publications

• 2011. J. B. Hubbard, M. R. Stoudt, and A. M. Possolo, Topographic analysis and Weibull regression for prediction of strain localisation in an automotive aluminium alloy, Materials Science and Technology, 27 (7): 1206-1212.

• 2011. F. R. Guenther and A. Possolo. Calibration and uncertainty assessment for certified reference gas mixtures. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, 399: 489-500.

• 2010. A. L. Rukhin and A. Possolo. Laplace random effects models for interlaboratory studies. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, 55: 1815-1827.

• 2010. B. Lehr, S. Bristol, and A. Possolo (Lead Authors). Oil Budget Calculator — Deepwater Horizon. Technical Documentation: A Report by The Federal Interagency Solutions Group, Oil Budget Calculator Science and Engineering Team. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. URL

• 2010. A. Possolo. Copulas for uncertainty analysis. Metrologia 47(3): 262-271.