R for the Planet by Alexa Fredston Visit https://rstats.ai/nyr/ to learn more. Abstract: In the rapidly growing field of environmental data science, R is the language of choice for many researchers seeking to forecast the impacts of extreme weather events, chronicle global biodiversity loss, or map injustice in environmental health. In this talk, I’ll showcase some of the challenges frequently encountered by environmental data scientists, and the R tools we use to solve them — from data wrangling to spatial analysis and Bayesian models. Through a series of real examples that required fitting models to messy data on biodiversity, oceans, and climate change, I’ll demonstrate how ecological and environmental researchers are leveraging R to help save the planet. Bio: Alexa Fredston is a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University, where she uses modeling, statistics, and environmental data science to tackle grand challenges in sustainability and biodiversity conservation. She has a PhD from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a BA from Princeton University in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Twitter: https://twitter.com/AFredston Presented at the 2021 New York R Conference (September 9, 2021)