I'm an assistant professor at the statistics department at Warwick. My research interests include Monte Carlo methods, statistical inference from stochastic processes and in settings with intractable likelihood, Bayesian nonparametric statistics, coalescent processes, and mathematical population genetics.

I am one of the organisers of the Warwick Statistics Internship Scheme. Illustrative project descriptions for undergraduate summer internships are available of the scheme website.

Teaching

In 2020/21 I am teaching ST341/ST418 Statistical Genetics.

Preprints

• P A Hanson, P A Jenkins, J Koskela, and D Spanò. Diffusion limits at small times for coalescent processes with mutation and selection. [arXiv]
• J Koskela. Zig-zag sampling for discrete structures and non-reversible phylogenetic MCMC. [arXiv][GitHub][YouTube]
• J Sant, P A Jenkins, J Koskela, and D Spanò. Convergence of likelihood ratios and estimators for selection in non-neutral Wright-Fisher diffusions. [arXiv]

Publications

• S Brown, P A Jenkins, A M Johansen, and J Koskela. Simple conditions for convergence of sequential Monte Carlo algorithms with applications. Electronic Journal of Probability 26, Paper 1, 2021. [EJP] [arXiv] [WRAP]
• J Blath, E Buzzoni, J Koskela, and M Wilke Berenguer. Statistical tools for seed bank detection. Theoretical Population Biology 132:1-15, 2020 [TPB] [arXiv] [WRAP] [GitHub]
• J Koskela, P A Jenkins, A M Johansen, and D Spanò. Asymptotic genealogies of interacting particle systems with an application to sequential Monte Carlo. Annals of Statistics 48(1):560-583, 2020 [AoS] [arXiv] [WRAP] *Note*: The published version contains an error in Lemma 1 that has been corrected in the arXiv version.
• J Koskela, D Spanò, and P A Jenkins. Consistency of Bayesian nonparametric inference for discretely observed jump diffusions. Bernoulli 25(3):2183-2205, 2019 [Bernoulli] [arXiv] [WRAP]
• J Koskela and M Wilke Berenguer. Robust model selection between population growth and multiple merger coalescents. Mathematical Biosciences 311:1-12, 2019 [MB] [arXiv] [WRAP] [GitHub]
• J Koskela. Multi-locus data distinguishes between population growth and multiple merger coalescents. Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology 17(3):20170011, 2018 [SAGMB] [arXiv] [WRAP] [GitHub]
• J Koskela, P A Jenkins, and D Spanò. Bayesian nonparametric inference for Λ-coalescents: posterior consistency and a parametric method. Bernoulli 24(3):2122-2153, 2018 [Bernoulli] [arXiv] [WRAP]
• J Koskela, D Spanò, and P A Jenkins. Inference and rare event simulation for stopped Markov processes via reverse-time sequential Monte Carlo. Statistics and Computing 28(1):131-144, 2018 [S&C] [arXiv] [WRAP]
• J Koskela, P A Jenkins, and D Spanò. Computational inference beyond Kingman's coalescent. Journal of Applied Probability 52(2):519-537, 2015 [JAP] [arXiv] [WRAP]

Grants

• PI, EPSRC research grant EP/V049208/1, Mathematical foundations of non-reversible MCMC for genome-scale inference (£80k), 2021-2022.
• PI, EPSRC New Investigator Award EP/R044732/1, Exact scalable inference for coalescent processes (£100k), 2018-2020.
• Co-PI, DFG SPP1819 start-up grant, Population genomics of highly fecund codfish (16k€). Joint with Bjarki Eldon (PI) and Maite Wilke Berenguer (Co-PI), 2017-2018.

Other grant involvement

• Collaborator, Icelandic Centre for Research Grant of Excellence 185151-051, Population genomics of highly fecund codfish. PIs: Einar Arnason (corresponding PI, University of Iceland), Katrin Halldorsdottir (University of Iceland), Alison Etheridge (University of Oxford), Wolfgang Stephan (Berlin Natural History Museum), Bjarki Eldon (Berlin Natural History Museum).

Workshops and organisation

• I organised a workshop on Models and Inference in Population Genetics at the University of Warwick on 11-13 December 2019.

Biographical sketch

• 2017-Present: Assistant professor at the Department of Statistics, University of Warwick.
• 2016-2017: Postdoc with Jochen Blath at TU Berlin.
• 2013-2016: PhD with Dario Spanò and Paul Jenkins at MASDOC, University of Warwick. My thesis is available here.
• 2012-2013: MSc with Dario Spanò and Paul Jenkins at MASDOC, University of Warwick
• 2008-2012: MMORSE at the Department of Statistics, University of Warwick.

Research students

• Suzie Brown (joint with Adam Johansen)
• Jaromir Sant (joint with Paul Jenkins)
• Sizhe Zhou (joint with Krzysztof Latuszynski)
• I'm also working with Phil Hanson (supervised by Dario Spanò and Paul Jenkins)

Prospective students should feel free to get in touch. See here for some illustrative ideas of directions for projects.

Contact

Telephone

+44(0)24 7652 8068

Email

j dot koskela at warwick dot ac dot uk

For MORSE business: morse at warwick dot ac dot uk

Office

Term 2 online office hours

Wed 11.30-12.30
Thu 09.30-10.30