Péter is an ecologist and scientific programmer whose work integrates large-scale ecological data analysis with advanced statistical modelling in R. His research focuses on developing flexible, reproducible tools for estimating species population densities and understanding ecological patterns across continental-scale datasets. Péter’s methodological contributions are widely recognized, particularly in handling complex and “messy” ecological data arising from imperfect surveys.
He is the author and maintainer of several well-known R packages used across ecological and statistical communities, including detect, dclone, vegan, and ResourceSelection, which support everything from hierarchical modelling to data cloning and resource use analysis. Beyond academic research, Péter applies his statistical expertise in industry, currently working as a data scientist helping utility companies improve outage prediction and impact mitigation strategies.
Péter also holds an adjunct faculty position at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, where he contributes to ecological research and mentorship in statistical computing and environmental modelling.
Education & Career
• Adjunct Professor, University of Alberta
• Data Scientist, Applied Predictive Analytics in the Energy Sector
• Author and maintainer of open-source R packages for ecological analysis
Research Focus
Péter’s work centers on scalable methods for ecological inference, particularly in the context of abundance estimation, imperfect detection, and model-based survey analysis. He is passionate about open science, reproducibility, and building tools that bridge ecological theory with practical data challenges.
Current Projects
• Developing R tools for estimating species density from imperfect survey data
• Applying predictive analytics to improve outage prevention in utility services
• Contributing to statistical and ecological workflows for large-scale biodiversity monitoring
Software & Tools
• detect – Tools for estimating detection probabilities and abundance
• dclone – Data cloning methods for Bayesian model calibration
• vegan – A foundational package for community ecology analysis
• ResourceSelection – Tools for analyzing habitat and resource use
Teaching & Skills
• Expert in R programming, hierarchical modelling, and Bayesian inference
• Active mentor in ecological statistics and open-source software development
• Promotes reproducible and efficient data analysis workflows across sectors
Links
• Google Scholar
• Work Homepage
• Personal Homepage
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