Francesco Lagona

Francesco Lagona is professor of statistics at the University of Roma Tre, where he coordinates the PhD program in Government, Economics and Institutions. Previously, he has been Research Associate at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University (USA), Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) and adjunct faculty at the Mathematics Department of the University of Bergen (Norway). He recently served as the president of GRASPA, the environmental section of the Italian Statistical Society. Currently, he is partner of the RESCUER doctoral network, funded by the European Commissions's MSCA program of excellence and collaborates with the DATA research group of the University of Pretoria (South Africa). With a total research output of more than 100 papers, his research activity focuses on new models for the analysis of complex multivariate data that are dependent across time and space. Principal proposals are in the area of multivariate hidden Markov random fields, an extension of multivariate finite mixture models to both the spatial and the temporal setting. Within this context, he has developed new computational methods that allow for efficient parameter estimation and model selection. Such proposals have been applied to address classification issues in biometrical and environmental studies, where he answered research questions in studies of environmental risk, cause-specific mortality, cardiovascular measurements and medical image analysis. Lagona's research is routinely supported by national research grants where he has often played the role of unit and national coordinator.