Prof Johan Ferreira

Tel: 012 420 2362

Email: [email protected]

Position:  Associate Professor

Assistant Focus Area Coordinator: Statistical Theory and Applied Statistics (see link), Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

Associate (see link), National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences, South Africa

Academic qualifications: MSc, PhD Mathematical Statistics (UP), LRSM (oboe performance)

Research interests:  random matrix theory and inference, multivariate analysis, wireless communications systems, entropy, Bayesian inference, modal inference

Teaching:

2024: WST 311 (Multivariate Analysis), MBS 700/800 (Medical biostatistics), TRG 880 (Data science: visualisation and analytics)

Before 2024: WST 321 (Time Series Analysis), STK 320 (Statistics), WST 211 & WST 221 (Mathematical statistics), WST 311 (Multivariate Analysis), SFT 720 (Sampling Techniques), MVA 720 (Multivariate Analysis), TRG 880 (Data science: visualisation and analytics)

Current postgraduate students:

Boitumelo Madumo, Thembinkosi Manyeruke, Paul Reitz, Arno Otto, Delene van Wyk.

I supervise a number of students at the honours level for both BSc- and BCom honours degrees in mathematical statistics as well as statistics and data science.

Graduated postgraduate students:

Gopika Ramkilawon, Delene van Wyk, Michaela Laidlaw, Christine van Zyl, Jarod Smith, Tichawona Mutoro, Brett Rowland, Seite Makgai. Ané van der Merwe, Arno Otto, Paul Louw, Tanita Botha, Jason Pillay, Dominic Wrbka.

Accolades:

Mail and Guardian Top 200 Young South Africans under the age of 35 in the Education category: https://200ysa.mg.co.za/2016/johan-ferriera/

Africa Science Leadership Programme 2018 Fellow: http://www.futureafrica.science/index.php/our-community/research-leaders/johan-ferreira-273

Excellence in Teaching award (2018), Department of Statistics, University of Pretoria

Nominated: Best Lecturer in the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UP: Senior Courses (2019)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5945-6550

Twitter: https://twitter.com/statisafrican

Publons: Link

Recent publications (for full list, check Google Scholar):

  1. Botha, T., Ferreira, J.T., and Bekker, A. 2022. "Some computational aspects of a noncentral Dirichlet family", in Innovations in multivariate statistical modelling: navigating theoretical and multidisciplinary domains, eds. Bekker, A., et. al. Springer: New York, ISBN 978-3-031-13970-3.

  2. Ferreira, J.T. and van der Merwe, A. 2022. "A noncentral Lindley construction illustrated in an INAR(1) environment", Stats, 5(1), doi.org/10.3390/stats5010005.

  3. Bekker, A., Ferreira, J.T., Human, S.W., and Adamski, K. 2022. "Capturing a change in the covariance structure of a sequential process". Symmetry, 14(1), doi.org/10.3390/sym14010156.

  4. Ferreira, J.T., Botha, T., and Bekker, A. 2022. "Tsallis and other generalised entropy forms subject to Dirichlet mixture priors". Symmetry, 14(6), doi.org/10.3390/sym14061110.

  5. Human, S.W., Bekker, A., Ferreira, J.T., and Mijburgh, P.A. 2022. "A bivariate beta from gamma ratios for determining a potential variance change point: inspired from a process control scenario". Mathematical and Computational Applications, 27(4), doi.org/10.3390/mca27040061.

  6. Botha, T., Ferreira, J.T., and Bekker, A. 2022. "Wasserstein distance as discriminator within the Dirichlet family". Annual proceedings of the South African Statistical Association Conference, 1, pp. 1-14.

  7. van der Merwe, A. and Ferreira, J.T. 2022. "An adapted discrete Lindley model emanating from negative binomial mixtures for autoregressive counts". Mathematics, 10(21), 4141; https://doi.org/10.3390/math10214141.

  8. Ramkilawon, G.D., Ferreira, J.T., and Nakheirad, N. 2023. "Sine-skewed von Mises- and Lindley/Gumbel models as candidates for direction and distance in modelling animal movement". Brazilian Journal of Biometry, 41, pp. 175 - 190.

Publications emanating from consultation work:

  1. Barret, M., van Niekerk, C., Page-Shipp, R., and Ferreira, J.T. 2020. "Learning music theory en passant: a study in an internationally recognised South African University student choir", British Journal of Music Education39(2), pp. 155-168.

  2. Van Zyl, A., White, Z., Ferreira, J.T., and Wenhold, F. 2019. "Development an impedance based equation for fat free mass of black pre-adolescent South African children", Nutrients, 11(9)2021.

  3. Mirkin, P., Evans, R., and Ferreira, J.T. 2020. "Using poetry to teach chemistry in Grade 9  - shifting paradigms", South African Journal of Education, 40(2).

Edited books:

Computational and Methodological Statistics and Biostatistics: Contemporary Essays in Advancement, 2020, eds. Bekker, A., Chen, D., and Ferreira, J.T. ISBN nr 978-3-030-42195-3, Springer: New York.

Innovations in multivariate statistical modelling: navigating theoretical and multidisciplinary domains, 2022, eds. Bekker, A., Ferreira, J.T., Arashi, M., and Chen, D. ISBN 978-3-031-13970-3. Springer: New York.

Fiction and fable: tales of time series, 2023, eds. Ferreira, J.T. and Makgai, S.M. ISBN 978-0-7961-2833-1. ESI Press: Pretoria.

Have a look at a seminar from May 2022:

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