Jann Paul Mattern
Post-doc
Department of Oceanography
Dalhousie University
1355 Oxford Street
Halifax, NS, B3H 4J1
Room 3626 LSC
Phone +1 (902) 494 3225
Fax +1 (902) 494 3877
E-mail: me
interactive Data Assimilation
Try out interactive data assimilation in your browser. There is currently only an early alpha version available, expect future updates.
My Research Interests
I have a broad interest in developing and applying statistical methods aimed at analysing and improving complex numerical models, in particular coupled biological-physical ocean models. Biological-physical ocean models are of great interest in oceanography, as they allow insights into important oceanic processes that are difficult or impossible to observe directly. At the same time, they provide a challenging application for statistical methods due to their complexity, high dimensionality and non-linearity. These methods include data assimilation, optimization and uncertainty analyses.
Currently, I am a post-doc in the Oceanography Department. I am working on implementing ensemble-based data assimilation of biological observations into a biological-physical model of the northwestern North Atlantic.
In August 2012, I finished my PhD degree at Dalhousie, I was co-supervised by Katja Fennel in the Oceanography Department and Mike Dowd in Statistics. My PhD research involved the application of statistical emulator and particle filter techniques to two shelf-scale biological-physical models, with the aim of obtaining state, parameter and uncertainty estimates. Research highlights include (1) estimation of time-dependent values for plankton parameters, (2) implementation and assessment of a particle filter technique for parameter and state estimation and (3) uncertainty and sensitivity analysis for a model simulating hypoxia in the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Before my time at Dalhousie, I was involved in research in the fields of machine learning and classification at the institute for neuro- und bioinformatics at the University of Lübeck. I finished my BSc (2005) and MSc (2008) in Lübeck, both in Computational Life Science (applied mathematics).
About me
Originally from Germany, I moved to Nova Scotia in 2007 as a visiting student during my Masters. When I am not in my office assimilating data, I can often be found exploring the great maritime outdoors. I enjoy hiking, bouldering, biking and canoeing.