Emi Tanaka

Curriculum vitae

This CV is built programmatically using the Quarto system.

Employment

Date Position
2025 - current Senior Lecturer
Australian National University
Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics
2023 - 2025 Deputy Director, Senior Lecturer
Australian National University
Biological Data Science Institute
2020 - 2023 Senior Lecturer, Lecturer
Monash University
Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics
2017 - 2019 Lecturer
The University of Sydney
School of Mathematics and Statistics
2014 - 2017 Research Fellow
University of Wollongong
School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics

Academic Qualifications

Year of completion Degree
2015 PhD in Statistics
University of Sydney
School of Mathematics and Statistics
2010 Bachelor of Science (Adv Maths) with Honours in Statistics
University of Sydney
Faculty of Science

Awards and Distinctions

Year Award
2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning
Highly Commended
Australian National University
As part of the SPOKE network for the ANU Statistical Support Network
2023 Featured in the list of 60 historical and current prominent Australian statisticians
Significance
A magazine by the Royal Statistical Society, the Statistical Society of Australia, and the American Statistical Association
2022 SSA President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics
Outstanding contribution to leadership in statistics
Statistical Society of Australia
2021 SSA Distinguished Presenter’s Award
Acknowledges the contributions by workshop and course presenters
Statistical Society of Australia
2020 Purple Letter
For teaching excellence in ETC5523 Communicationg with Data
Monash University
Recognised by students as one of the top performing units in the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units
2011 J.B. Douglas Award
Nomination and Prize
Statistical Society of Australia, NSW Branch
2008 Tim Brown Prize II
The University of Sydney
2008 Barker Scholarship IV
The University of Sydney

Professional Memberships

  • Statistical Society of Australia
  • International Biometrics Society
  • American Statistical Association

Teaching

  • Design and Analysis of Experiments (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/workshop-experimental-design/
    - 2024 S2: 3 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • Generalised Linear Models (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/workshop-GLM/
    - 2024 S2: 3 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • Introduction to R programming (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/workshop-intro-R/
    - 2024 S1: 3 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • Data Wrangling with R (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/workshop-data-wrangling-R1/
    - 2024 S1: 3 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • Data Visualisation with R (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/workshop-data-vis-R1/
    - 2024 S1: 3 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • Reproducible Research with Quarto (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/workshop-intro-quarto/
    - 2024 S1: 3 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • BDSI R Training I: Scientific Reproducibility in the Biological Sciences (Workshop)
    Australian National University
    https://anu-bdsi.github.io/training-R1/
    - 2023 S2: 6 hour workshop, delivered and developed all materials
  • Introduction to Machine Learning (ETC3250/5250)
    Monash University
    - 2023 S1: 24 lectures, all assessments, coordinator
  • Communicating with Data (ETC5523)
    Monash University
    - 2022 S2: 24 lectures, all assessments, coordinator
    - 2021 S2: 12 lectures, 1/2 assessments, coordinator
    - 2020 S2: 12 lectures, 1/2 assessments, coordinator

  • Wild-Caught Data (ETC5512)
    Monash University
    - 2022 S1: 6 lectures, 1/4 assessments
    - 2021 S1: 6 lectures, 1/4 assessments
    - 2020 S1: 6 lectures, 1/4 assessments

  • An interactive introduction to data analysis with R (Resource)
    Monash University
    https://learnr.numbat.space
    - 2022 S1: Lead in creating online resource with 9 modules
  • Exploratory Data Analysis (ETC5521)
    Monash University
    - 2021 S2: 12 lectures, 1/2 assessments, coordinator
    - 2020 S2: 12 lectures, 1/2 assessments, coordinator

  • Applied Linear Models (STAT3012)
    University of Sydney
    - 2019 S1: 39 lectures, 23 tutorials, all assessments, coordinator
    - 2018 S1: 12 lectures, 18 tutorials, 1/3 assessments
    - 2017 S1: 27 lectures, 12 tutorials, 2/3 assessments

  • Introduction to Statistics (STAT5002)
    University of Sydney
    - 2018 S1: 12 lectures, 6 tutorials, 1/2 assessments
    - 2017 S1: 13 lectures, 7 tutorials, 1/2 assessments

  • Experimental Design (STAT906)
    University of Wollongong
    - 2016 S2: 24 lectures, designed all assessments, coordinator

Guest lecture

  • Design of Experiments and Surveys (STAT3012/6019)
    Australian National University
    2025 S1, 2024 S1
  • Research Presentation Skills (BIOL8291)
    Australian National University
    2024 S2, 2024 S1
  • Research Proposal (BIOL8700)
    Australian National University
    2024 S1

Service

  • Statistical Society of Australia
    - Mentor, 2025/03 – Current
    - ACT Branch, Council Member, 2024/03 – Current
    - Victoria & Tasmania Branch, Vice President, 2023/03 – 2024/03
    - Victoria Branch, President, 2021/03 – 2023/03
    - Victoria Branch, Vice President, 2020/03 – 2021/03
    - NSW Branch, Secretary, 2018/03 – 2020/03
    - NSW Branch, Assistant Secretary, 2017/03 – 2018/03
  • Biometrics in the Bush Capital
    - Scienctific and Program Committee, Member, 2024/10 – Current
    - Local Organisation Committee, Chair, 2024/08 – Current
  • R Journal
    - Executive Editor, 2024/01 – Current
    - Associate Editor, 2023/02 – 2023/12
  • rOpenSci
    - Statistical Software Editor, 2024/01 – Current
  • rOpenSci Champions Program
    - Mentor, 2023/12 – Current
  • useR! 2021
    - Program Committee, Member, 2021/03 – 2021/03
  • Australasian Applied Statistics Conference 2020/2022
    - Organising Committee, Member, 2020/01 – 2022/12
  • International Biometrics Society
    - Australaisan Region, Social Media Coordinator, 2018/01 – Current
  • Australasian Applied Statistics Conference 2016
    - Program and Review Committee, Member, 2016/07 – 2016/12
    - Local Organisation Committee, Chair, 2016/01 – 2016/12

External Committees

Year desc
2024 Working Group
Australian Data Science Network
Report: Armstrong NJ, Bharathy GK, Buchhorn K, Mehta D, Mengersen K, Papaioannou A, Perrin D, Tanaka E (2024). People RDC Framework for Advanced Analytics for National Healthcare Research Infrastructure. Australian Data Science Network. Report to ARDC, Australian Research Data Commons. https://zenodo.org/records/13831386
2023 Data Science Review Panel
Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute & Statistical Society of Australia
Report: Data Science Review https://amsi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/amsi-ssa-data-science-review.pdf

Research Supervision

Postdocs

  • Yidi Deng (2025 – current)
    Role: Primary Supervisor
    Biological Data Science Institute
    Australian National University
  • Fonti Kar (2025 – current)
    Role: Primary Supervisor
    Biological Data Science Institute
    Australian National University
  • Weihao (Patrick) Li (2025 – current)
    Role: Primary Supervisor
    Biological Data Science Institute
    Australian National University

PhD students

  • Zhining Wang (2025 – current)
    Role: Associate Supervisor, Primary supervisor: Francis Hui
    Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics
    Australian National University
  • Xueqi (Maggie) Ma (2024 – current)
    Role: Primary Supervisor
    Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics
    Australian National University
  • Zixiong Zhang (2024 – current)
    Role: Supervisory Panel Member, Primary supervisor: Danielle Way
    Research School of Biology
    Australian National University
  • Weihao (Patrick) Li (2021 – 2025)
    Role: Associate Supervisor, Primary supervisor: Di Cook
    Department of Econometrics and Business Statistics
    Monash University

Honour students

  • Jiazhe (Jenny) Lin (2025 – current)
    Role: Primary Supervisor
    Research School of Finance, Actuarial Studies and Statistics
    Australian National University
  • Jaden Costa (2019)
    Role: Co-Supervisor with Peter Kim
    School of Mathematics and Statistics
    University of Sydney
  • Denzel Florez (2018)
    Role: Primary Supervisor
    School of Mathematics and Statistics
    University of Sydney
  • Lauren Borg (2016)
    Role: Associate Supervisor with Brian Cullis
    School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics
    University of Wollongong
  • Nicole Cocks (2016)
    Role: Associate Supervisor with Brian Cullis
    School of Mathematics and Applied Statistics
    University of Wollongong

Invited Talks and Seminars

Keynote

year desc
2023 Keynote speaker
Visual Data Science at IEEE VIS 2023, Melbourne, Australia
2022 Ihaka lecture
Department of Statistics, University of Auckland, Online

Invited talks and seminars (in the last 5 years)

year desc
2025 Invited talk
Forum “Math for Industry”, Seoul, Korea
2024 Invited talk
International Biometrics Society, Atlanta, USA
2023 Invited talk
Australian Statistical Conference, Wollongong, Australia
2023 Seminar
Statistical Society of Australia ECSSN Webinar, Online
2023 Invited talk
ISI World Statistics Congress, Ottawa, Canada
2022 Invited talk
Australian Data Science Network Conference, Brisbane, Australia
2022 Invited talk
Monash Data Futures Insitute, Melbourne, Australia
2022 Invited talk
Statistical Society of Australia Canberra Branch, Canberra, Australia
2022 Seminar
Statistics Seminar, University of Glasgow, Online
2022 Invited talk
Toronto Data Workshop, Online
2021 Invited talk
R-Ladies Melbourne, Online
2021 Invited talk
Statistics Seminar, University of Auckland, Online
2020 Seminar
Statistical Society of Australia, Online
2020 Invited talk
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland, Online
2020 Invited talk
Statistical Society of Australia Western Australian Branch, Online

Funding

year desc
2024 Analytics for the Australian Grains Industry
Grains Research and Development Corporation
Project Partnership
$1,533,213
Lead Investigator
2022 ARC Linkage Project
Australian Research Council
Three-dimensional Bayesian Modelling of Geological and Geophysical data
$554,188
Chief Investigator
2020 ARC Centre of Excellence
Australian Research Council
ARC Centre of Excellence for Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS)
Associate Investigator
2019 ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre
Australian Research Council
Data Analytics for Resources and Environments (DARE)
$3,973,202
Chief Investigator
2019 R Consortium Grant
R Consortium
Symbolic Formulae for Linear Mixed Models
US$6,000
Lead Investigator
2018 Sydney Institute of Agriculture Research Project Grant
Sydney Institute of Agriculture
Land surface models of carbon and water do not work in agricultural landscapes where it actually matters they work
$90,000
Chief Investigator
2018 Faculty of Science Research Equipment and Infrastructure Scheme
The University of Sydney
Sydney bioinformatics and biometrics big data research server
$36,040
Chief Investigator

Publications

Publications and citations extracted from Google Scholar using the scholar R package.

  1. J Li, F Cheng, JJ Liu, E Tanaka (2025). Analysis of international life expectancies with manifold learning and neural networks. Genus.
  2. W Li, D Cook, E Tanaka, S VanderPlas (2024). A plot is worth a thousand tests: Assessing residual diagnostics with the lineup protocol. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics. Citations: 13
  3. H Mason, D Cook, S Goodwin, E Tanaka, S VanderPlas (2024). The Noisy Work of Uncertainty Visualisation Research: A Review. arXiv preprint. Citations: 1
  4. E Tanaka (2024). Telling Stories with Data: With Application in R. By Rohan Alexander. CRC Press. 2023. 622 pages. AU $129.60 (hardback). ISBN: 978‐1‐0321‐3477‐2.. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Statistics.
  5. W Li, D Cook, E Tanaka, S VanderPlas, K Ackermann (2024). Automated Assessment of Residual Plots with Computer Vision Models. arXiv preprint.
  6. E Tanaka (2023). edibble: An R package to encapsulate elements of experimental designs for better planning, management and workflow. arXiv preprint.
  7. E Tanaka (2023). Towards a unified language in experimental designs propagated by a software framework. arXiv preprint.
  8. D Amaliah, D Cook, E Tanaka, K Hyde, N Tierney (2022). A journey from wild to textbook data to reproducibly refresh the wages data from the national longitudinal survey of youth database. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education. Citations: 2
  9. E Tanaka, JWY Leung, D Cook (2022). Commentary on “Visualization in Operations Management Research”: Incorporating Statistical Thinking into Visualization Practices for Decision Making in Operational Management. INFORMS Journal on Data Science. Citations: 2
  10. E Tanaka, D Amaliah (2022). Current state and prospects of R-packages for the design of experiments. arXiv preprint. Citations: 2
  11. D Cook, N Reid, E Tanaka (2021). The Foundation is Available for Thinking about Data Visualization Inferentially. Harvard Data Science Review. Citations: 13
  12. G Morota, H Cheng, D Cook, E Tanaka (2021). ASAS-NANP Symposium: prospects for interactive and dynamic graphics in the era of data-rich animal science. Journal of animal science. Citations: 11
  13. E Tanaka (2020). Simple outlier detection for a multi-environmental field trial. Biometrics. Citations: 15
  14. E Tanaka, FKC Hui (2019). Symbolic formulae for linear mixed models. Research School on Statistics and Data Science. Citations: 4
  15. FKC Hui, E Tanaka, DI Warton (2018). Order selection and sparsity in latent variable models via the ordered factor LASSO. Biometrics. Citations: 33
  16. A Norman, J Taylor, E Tanaka, P Telfer, J Edwards, JP Martinant, … (2017). Increased genomic prediction accuracy in wheat breeding using a large Australian panel. Theoretical and Applied Genetics. Citations: 47
  17. E Tanaka, JPF Ral, S Li, R Gaire, CR Cavanagh, BR Cullis, A Whan (2017). Increased accuracy of starch granule type quantification using mixture distributions. Plant methods. Citations: 10
  18. E Tanaka, TL Bailey, U Keich (2014). Improving MEME via a two-tiered significance analysis. Bioinformatics. Citations: 27
  19. E Tanaka, T Bailey, CE Grant, WS Noble, U Keich (2011). Improved similarity scores for comparing motifs. Bioinformatics. Citations: 72
  20. I Liachko, E Tanaka, K Cox, SCC Chung, L Yang, A Seher, L Hallas, … (2011). Novel features of ARS selection in budding yeast Lachancea kluyveri. BMC genomics. Citations: 28

Software

For R packages published on CRAN, the total downloads over one year period is shown extracted from the cranlogs R package. Note that the download log is a public record from one of the many mirrors available.

My software contributions can be found at https://github.com/emitanaka.

Skills

  • Expert: R, HTML/CSS, LaTeX
  • Intermediate: Git/GitHub, Python, Bash, JS
  • Languages: English (fluent) and Japanese (conversational)

Contact