Tell us a bit about you and your background!

Hi everyone. My name is George Vazanellis and I was born in the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia, but spent most of my life in the great state of Indiana, USA, where I received a BS of Physics and an MS of Mathematics from Purdue University. I have been lucky enough to be living in Scotland since 2014, when I came to the University of Glasgow to pursue a PhD in Statistics. I became part of SLD a few months before my graduation and have been here since.

What is your job and what does it involve?

My official title is Statistics Adviser, and I’m here to offer support to students and staff needing to boost their statistics knowledge and skills. This is done mostly by 1 to 1 appointments, but I also offer open sessions and in-course provision covering a wide rage of topics in statistics. Many of the students who book appointments with me are looking for stats help when completing projects, dissertations, and theses.

What are your favourite aspects of your job and your biggest passion project?

There’s not much that makes me happier than seeing a student’s boost in enthusiasm when they start to understand a concept in statistics and see how it applies to their assignment or research. I remember one student commenting that it was like opening a door a new world. It seems more than a few students are a bit intimidated by certain pieces of statistical software, RStudio being one of them, so my passion project would have to be getting more and more students comfortable with using that. I feel it’s a shame if a student doesn’t benefit from all the functionality RStudio has because they’re afraid of writing small bits of code.

Outwith work, what are your favourite things to do?

Well, I would like to say I’m a painter, a rock climber, a free diver, a gardener, and a bass player, but I would be lying. The truth is I love visiting art galleries and private exhibitions. The style I’m most fond of is Abstract Impressionism. It’s fascinating to view a piece that evokes strong emotions simply, with a minimal amount of brush strokes. This is truly a skill I wish I had.

Alternatively, I am a fantastic cook.

Before you go, what’s your one tip for succeeding in study/university/research/the workplace?

Many times, students come in for statistical support and feel they are not capable of understanding the material because of it’s complexity. What I tell them (and what I truly believe) is we all perform very complicated tasks in our daily routines. We just may not realize it. Therefore we have the capacity to learn almost any subject matter, as long as we have the sincere willingness and put forth the effort needed.

For more on George’s work in SLD, head to www.gla.ac.uk/SLD/mathsandstats/stats/

Written by Dr Georve Vazanellis, Stats Adviser