Emma McCoy

McCoy completed a Master of Science degree in Computational Statistics in 1991 at the University of Bath.[1] McCoy's PhD focused on the analysis and synthesis of long-memory processes.[2] In particular, she investigated the use of the discrete wavelet transform and multitaper spectral estimation.[2] She completed her thesis, Some New Statistical Approaches to the Analysis of Long Memory Processes, in 1995 at Imperial College London under the supervision of Andrew Walden.[3]

McCoy is interested in time series analysis and causal inference, with a particular focus on transport.[4] She was appointed Professor of Statistics in 2014.[5] McCoy teaches several undergraduate courses at Imperial, as well as being an advisor for the EPSRC funded Mathematics of Planet Earth doctoral training centre.[6][7]

She has given several public talks related to her research, and real world applications, like Inference Challenges in Transportation.[8][9][10] In 2006 she delivered the London Mathematical Society popular lecture, From Magic Squares to Sudoku.[11] She has been involved with the Royal Institution mathematics masterclasses since they started being held at Imperial College London.[12] She is concerned about the future of mathematics education in the UK, and is a member of the Royal Society Advisory Committee of Mathematics Education.[13][14] McCoy established a joint Mathematics with Education BSc at Imperial College, which is delivered jointly by Imperial College London and Canterbury Christ Church University.[15]

McCoy is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the Royal Statistical Society.[1] She is also a member of the Royal Statistical Society's Academic Affairs group.[1] In 2017 she was appointed Vice-Dean for Education for the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Imperial College London.[16] She is on the Council of the Royal Statistical Society.[17]

McCoy was the first female professor of maths at Imperial College London.[18] She was the mathematical advisor to the maths and computing section of the Suffrage Science scheme, which celebrates women in science for their scientific achievement and for their ability to inspire others.[18] Suffrage Science was established in 2011 by the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre.[19] In 2017 she received an award from the London Institute of Medical Sciences for establishing a Maths and Computing Group.[20]