The Heart of the Matter

"The chief aim of all investigations of the external world should be to discover the rational order and harmony which has been imposed on it by God and which He revealed to us in the language of mathematics." -- Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)

 "To understand God's thoughts, we must study statistics for these are the measure of his purpose." --Florence Nightingale (As quoted by Karl Pearson in Life, Letters, and Labours of Francis Galton, 1914)

Contact Information:

Office: 250 Mabee Business Building
Address: ACU Box 29315, Abilene, Texas 79699
E-mail: tim.coburn@coba.acu.edu
Telephone: 325-674-2206
FAX: 325-674-2507

Degrees, Licenses & Certificates:

• Ph.D. (Statistics), Oklahoma State University, 1980
• M.S. (Statistics), Oklahoma State University, 1975
• B.S. (Mathematics), Abilene Christian University, 1973
• B.S.Ed. (Mathematics/Physics), Abilene Christian University, 1973

Academic Positions Held:

• Professor of Statistics, College of Business Administration, Abilene Christian University, 2004-Present
• Associate Professor of Management Science, Abilene Christian University, 2000-2004
• Associate Professor of Mathematics & Computer Science, Abilene Christian University, 1997-2003
• University Statistician, Office of Institutional Research & Assessment, Abilene Christian University, 1997-present

Other Positions:

• Visiting Scientist, Sandia National Laboratory, Energy and Environment Division
• Visiting Scientist, US Geological Survey, Eastern Division Energy Resources
• Visiting Scientist, Kansas Geological Survey, Mathematical Geology Section
• Senior Statistician, Team Leader, & Project Manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Senior Financial Specialist, US Small Business Administration
• Supervisor, Principal Consulting Statistician, & Advanced Research Scientist, Marathon Oil Company
• Research Statistician, Phillips Petroleum Company
• Regional Statistician, US Department of Agriculture

Current Areas of Research and Professional Interest:

• Applications of statistics in energy, fuels, transportation, earth and environmental sciences, and related disciplines, including evaluation of natural resources, global impacts of technology, risk assessment, market and policy analysis, and related public health effects issues
• Statistical consulting in business and industry, and the use of statistics in business decision-making
• Spatial statistics, information systems, and modeling
• Data management, computing, and the computational aspects of statistics
• Statistical design, execution, and analysis of sample surveys and empirical research investigations

Current Projects:

• Spatial analysis of estimates of reserves in unconventional natural gas plays
• Bootstrap methodology applied to assessment of uncertainty in estimates of oil and gas reserves
• Market analysis of buyers of zero-energy homes
• Spatial analysis of earthquake epicenters in Japan
• Transect sampling to estimate object intensity of unexploded ordnance (UXO)

Professional Affiliations:

• American Statistical Association: Business & Economic Statistics, Physical & Engineering Statistics, Survey Research Methods, Transportation Statistics Interest Group
• Institute of Mathematical Statistics
• American Society for Quality
• International Association for Mathematical Geology
• Air & Waste Management Association
• INFORMS

Professional Service Activities:

• Editorial Board, Journal of Transportation and Statistics
• Editorial Board, Natural Resources Research
• Former Contributing Editor, Current Index to Statistics
• Former Member, Committee on Statistics and Statistical Software, Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council
• Former Member, Energy Statistics Committee, U.S. Energy Information Administration & American Statistical Association
• Faculty Consultant, Advanced Placement in Statistics, Educational Testing Service

Courses Taught:

• Business Statistics and Business Statistics Laboratory
• Statistical Methods I & II
• Mathematical Statistics
• Statistical Computing Laboratory
• Data Mining
• Statistical Process and Quality Control
• Survey Research Methods
• Time Series Seminar
• Spatial Statistics Seminar
• Business Math

Consulting:

• Sandia National Laboratory
• US Geological Survey
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• US Energy Information Administration
• Idaho National Energy and Environmental Laboratory
• Quantitative Geosciences LLP
• Knowledge Reservoir, Inc.
• US Small Business Administration
• Central Texas Opportunities/Head Start
• Texas Association of Businesses and Chambers of Commerce
• The Brashear Group
• GeoInsight, Inc.
• Carson and Tratner, Attorneys at Counsel

International Experience:

• Internal consulting for Marathon Oil Company in London and Aberdeen
• Session chairman, SAE International Fuels & Lubricants Meeting, Paris

Representative Publications/Research Presentations:

Saito, H., S. A. McKenna, D. A. Zimmerman, and T. C. Coburn, 2005, Geostatistical interpolation of object counts collected from multiple strip transects: ordinary kriging versus finite domain kriging.  Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment, v. 19, pp. 71-85.

Palmer, C. A., E. Tuncali, K. O. Dennen, T. C. Coburn, and R. B. Finkleman, 2004, Characterization of Turkish coals: a nationwide perspective.  International Journal of Coal Geology, v. 60, pp. 85-115.

Saito, H., T. C. Coburn, and S. A. McKenna, 2004, Geostatistical noise filtering of geophysical images: application to unexploded ordnance (UXO) sites.  Seventh International Geostatistics Congress, Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Attanasi, E. D. and T. C. Coburn, 2004, Uncertainty and inferred reserve estimates—the 1995 National Assessment:  USGS Bulletin 2172-G (Geologic, Engineering, and Assessment Studies of Reserve Growth), 8 p.

T. C. Coburn, 2004, Mixed-model statistical analysis of fuel, equipment, mileage, and driving schedule effects on PM emissions from heavy diesel-powered vehicles. Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, vol. 54, pp. 1151-1161.

T. C. Coburn, B. C. Farhar, and M. Murphy, 2004, Comparative analysis of homebuyer response to new zero energy homes, in Proceedings of the ACEEE Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings: American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, Asilomar, CA.

Attanasi, E. D. and T. C. Coburn, 2004, A bootstrap approach to computing uncertainty in inferred oil and gas reserve estimates.  Natural Resources Research, v. 13, pp. 45-52.

Coburn, T. C. and B. Farhar, 2004, Public reaction to renewable energy systems, in Encyclopedia of energy (C. J. Cleveland, ed.). Elsevier, pp. 207-222.

Roberts, B. L., T. C. Coburn, B. W. Arnold, and S. A. McKenna, 2004, Discrete Feature Mapping Methodology and Application to Active Faults in Japan.  Draft Report, Japan Nuclear Waste Management Organization, 157 p.

Coburn, T. C., 2003, Review of Spatial Statistics for Remote Sensing (A. Stein, F. van der Meer, and B. Gorte). Mathematical Geology, v. 35, pp. 105-109.

Coburn, T. C., 2003, Review of Annotated Readings in the History of Statistics (H. A. David and A. W. F. Edwards). Journal of Official Statistics, v.19, pp. 201-203.

Coburn, T. C., 2002, Review of Practical Geostatistics:  Modeling and Spatial Analysis (S. W. Houlding). Technometrics, v. 44, pp. 83-84, 2002.

Coburn, T. C., 2001, John W. Harbaugh’s contributions to the evolution of stochastic analysis and modeling in geology, in Geological Modeling and Simulation: Sedimentary Systems (D. F. Merriam and J. C. Davis, eds.). Elsevier Academic Publishers, pp. 15-44.

Coburn, T. C., 2000, Introduction: special issue on statistical analysis and modeling of automotive emissions.  Journal of Transportation Statistics, v. 3, pp. ii-vii.

Coburn, T. C., 2000, Statistical analysis of on-road particulate matter emissions from diesel vehicles.  Inhalation Toxicology, v. 12, suppl. 2, pp. 23-33.

Coburn, T. C., 2000, Geographic Information Systems in Petroleum Exploration and Development.  American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 315 p.

Winebrake, J. J., M. L. Deaton, T. C. Coburn, and K. J. Kelley, 2000, Statistical analysis of emissions and deterioration rates from in-use, high mileage CNG and gasoline Ford Crown Victoria taxi cabs, in SAE Technical Paper Series, International Spring Fuels & Lubricants Meeting.  Society of Automotive Engineers, Paper 2000-01-FL170.

Farhar, B. C. and T. C. Coburn, 1999, Colorado homeowner preferences on energy and environmental policy.  National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL/TP-550-25285, 34 p.

Coburn, T. C., K. J. Kelley, and B. K. Bailey, 1998, Reduction in vehicle emissions attributed to alternative transportation fuels and its prospective impact on air quality and public health.  Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, v.13, pp. 395-405.

Coburn, T. C. and J. H. Schuenemeyer, 1991, When are we really going to run out of oil and gas?—statistical, political, economic, and geoscientific issues.  Mathematical Geology, v. 23, pp. 403-442.