Dr Melissa Humphries

Melissa Humphries serves as Senior Lecturer in Statistics at the University of Adelaide, where she combines her unique background as a former chef with expertise in statistical analysis and cognitive modeling. After completing her PhD in Statistics and Mathematical Psychology from the University of Tasmania in 2017, she has built an impressive career spanning teaching and research. Her work focuses on applied statistics across diverse fields including forensic science, defense, psychology, and wastewater analysis, with particular emphasis on developing tools that support expert decision-making. As a lecturer, she coordinates multiple courses including second-year undergraduate statistics and has helped develop innovative online learning units in Bayesian reasoning. Her teaching portfolio includes Data Literacy, Statistical Analysis and Modeling, and Research Methods and Statistics. Recently named a Superstar of STEM for 2023-24, she advocates for making academia more accessible while maintaining an active research program in Bayesian inference, stochastic processes, and large dataset management. Her expertise extends to analyzing spatially and temporally autocorrelated data, contributing to fields ranging from astrophysics to forensic anthropology, while her background in psychology enhances her ability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.