The PhD defence will be in Abels utsikt - Niels Henrik Abels hus. The host of the session will moderate the technicalities while the chair of the defence will moderate the disputation.
Ex auditorio questions: the chair of the defence will invite the audience to ask questions ex auditorio at the end of the defence.
- Submit request to access (available from 13th of May 1:15 pm until 29th of May 1:15 pm)
Trial lecture
29th of May, time: 10:15 am, room 1259 (Abels utsikt).
Bayesian causal inference in the potential outcome framework
Main research findings
This thesis is about statistical analysis of binary data, and presents both new methodological advances and practical applications. On the methodological side, the thesis presents a new importance sampling algorithm for estimating the marginal likelihood when using Bayesian nonparametric models for binary trials. This method relies on counting the symmetries arising from binary responses, thus turning a statistical problem into a combinatorial one. There are also theoretical developments regarding the large-sample theory of adaptive designs in binary regression, which are commonly employed in medicine, toxicology and industry.
Regarding applications, the thesis focuses on enhancing statistical estimates of the sensitivity of explosives, with a particular emphasis on explosive remnants of war and dumped ammunition. It demonstrates that remnants of the high explosive amatol (widely used in both World Wars) are more sensitive to impact than previously assumed. Furthermore, the thesis presents recommendations for updating NATO's protocol for sensitivity measurements, so that researchers can extract more information from their experimental data.
Adjudication committee
- Professor Sonia Petrone, Bocconi University
- Professor Antoine E. D. M. van der Heijden, The Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research
- Professor Sven Ove Samuelsen, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Nils Lid Hjort, University of Oslo
- Principal Scientist Erik Unneberg, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment
Chair of defence
Professor Erlend Fornæss Wold, University of Oslo
Host of the session
Professor Sven Ove Samuelsen, University of Oslo