Research interests

• Analysis of series of plant variety trials
• Linear mixed models
• Analysis of plant quality traits
• Analysis of micro-array data

Background

Alison Smith is a Senior Research Scientist in the Biometrics Unit. She joined NSW DPI in 1997 as a Senior Biometrician after working in a similar role for 13 years in South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI).

Alison’s research career commenced with her PhD which provided a new method for the analysis of series of plant variety trials. She has maintained an interest in this area and other areas of importance to plant breeding and variety evaluation. Many of the methods she has developed have been widely adopted both in Australia and overseas. 

Alison has published a total of 40 peer reviewed papers, 17 of which relate directly to her statistical research and the remainder to collaborative work with scientists in NSW DPI and other scientific organisations including CSIRO. She has been invited to present work at several statistical and scientific conferences. She is currently supervising two PhD students and leads two externally funded projects.

Alison is based at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Institute.

Qualifications

• B.Sc. (Hons) – University of Adelaide (1981) 
• PhD – University of Adelaide (2000)

Current projects

• The analysis of series of plant variety trials: 
  -Factor Analytic (FA) models for early generation trials
  -Two-stage analysis for late stage (evaluation) trials
  -Extension of FA model for crops with multiple harvests
  -Extension of FA model for crops subject to competition
  -Local area predictions for the National Variety Testing System
• Outlier detection in linear mixed models
• The design and analysis of plant quality trait experiments
• Micro-array data 
  -Data normalisation and outlier detection
  -Identification of polymorphic clones

Recent Publications

A.B. Smith, J.K. Stringer, Wei X., and B.R. Cullis (2007). Varietal selection for perennial crops where data relate to multiple harvests from a series of field trials. Euphytica (In press).

A.Kelly, A.B. Smith, J.Eccleston, and B.R. Cullis. (2007). The accuracy of varietal selection using factor analytic models for multi-environment plant breeding trials. Crop Science (In press).

G.Mann, S.Diffey, H.Allen, J.Pumpa, Z.Nath, M.Morell, B.Cullis, and A.Smith. (2007). Comparison of small scale and large scale mixing characteristics: correlations between small and large scale mixing and extensional characteristics of wheat flour dough. Journal of Cereal Science (In press).

A.B. Smith, P.Lim, and B.R. Cullis. (2006). The design and analysis of multi-phase plant breeding experiments. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge, 144: 393-409.

D.Lemerle, A.Smith, B.Verbeek, E.Koetz, P.Lockley, and P.Martin. (2006). Incremental crop tolerance to weeds: a measure for selecting competitive ability in Australian wheats. Euphytica, 149: 85-95.

B.R. Cullis, A.B. Smith, and N.E. Coombes. (2006). On the design of early generation variety trials with correlated data. Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics, 11: 381-393.

G.Mann, H.Allen, M.Morell, Z.Nath, P.Martin, J.Oliver, B.Cullis, and A.Smith. (2006). Comparison of small scale and large scale extensibility of dough produced from wheat flour. Australian Journal of Agricultural Research, 56:1387-1394

A.B. Smith, B.R. Cullis, and R.Thompson. (2005). The analysis of crop cultivar breeding and evaluation trials: an overview of current mixed model approaches. Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge, 143:449-462.

Professional associations and activities

Alison is a member of the International Biometrics Society (she serves on the Awards Funds Committee) and the Statistical Society of Australia.

She has refereed papers for the following journals: Biometrics; Journal of Agricultural, Biological and Environmental Statistics; Australian and New Zealand Journal of Statistics; Theoretical and Applied Genetics; Australian Journal of Agricultural Research; Crop Science.

Fields of Research

• 010404 Applied Statistics

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Keyword/phrase list of research interests

• Analysis of plant breeding and variety evaluation data 
• Multi-environment trials
• Linear mixed models