Professor Caitlin Buck
School of Mathematics and Statistics
Professor
Employability, Careers and Placements Coordinator
+44 114 222 3715
Full contact details
School of Mathematics and Statistics
I23
Hicks Building
Hounsfield Road
Sheffield
S3 7RH
- Profile
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Prof Buck graduated with a BSc in Archaeological Science from the University of Bradford in 1987. She then joined a collaborative team of archaeologists and statisticians at the University of Nottingham, working as a research assistant on a number of projects and completing a part-time PhD in statistics in 1994. Her PhD thesis title was: Towards Bayesian Archaeology. From Nottingham she moved to Cardiff to take up a lecturing post the School of History and Archaeology (1994-2001). During that time, she continued her research interests in the application of statistics to archaeology, focusing most on applications of Bayesian statistics to radiocarbon calibration. In 2001, she moved to the Department of Probability and Statistics at the University of Sheffield where, in 2014, she was promoted to a Personal Chair. She continues to have research interests in the applications of Bayesian statistics to archaeology, but now also works on problems in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.
- Research interests
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My research draws on experience in archaeology, palaeoenvironmental science and statistics, encouraging experts from a range of fields to share ideas and resources. Previous and current work includes:
- analysis of field survey data from Britain and Greece.
- the calibration and interpretation of groups of related radiocarbon determinations.
- the provenancing of archaeological ceramics with the aid of chemical compositional data.
- development of models for relative archaeological chronology building (seriation).
- analysis of the structure of prehistoric corbelled domes.
- the use of Bayesian radiocarbon calibration to aid in tephrochronology.
- models for interpreting spatio-temporal data such as those relating to the recolonisation of a landscape in response to past climate change or the arrival of domesticated cereals at the start of the Neolithic in Europe.
- the development of models and methods for estimating radiocarbon calibration curves.
- development of tailored statistical models to aid in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction on the basis of data preserved in ice cores and lake/ocean sediments.
- Publications
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Show: Featured publications All publications
Featured publications
Books
- Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Journal articles
- Statistical challenges in estimating past climate changes. WIRES Computational Statistics, 10(5). View this article in WRRO
- Interpretation of lake sediment accumulation rates. The Holocene, 26(7), 1092-1102. View this article in WRRO
- Transatlantic distribution of the Alaskan White River Ash. Geology, 42(10), 875-878.
- Looking forward through the past: Identification of 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. Journal of Ecology, 102(1), 256-267.
- IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 1869-1887.
- Bayesian Glaciological Modelling to quantify uncertainties in ice core chronologies. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(21-22), 2961-2975.
- A flexible approach to assessing synchroneity of past events using Bayesian reconstructions of sedimentation history. QUATERNARY SCI REV, 27(19-20), 1872-1885. View this article in WRRO
- Estimating radiocarbon calibration curves. BAYESIAN ANAL, 3(2), 225-248. View this article in WRRO
- A calendar chronology for Pleistocene mammoth and horse extinction in North America based on Bayesian radiocarbon calibration. QUATERNARY SCI REV, 26(17-18), 2031-2035.
All publications
Books
- Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Journal articles
- Digital chronological data reuse in archaeology: three case studies with varying purposes and perspectives. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 40(A). View this article in WRRO
- A Simple Bayesian Approach to Tree-ring Dating. Archaeometry. View this article in WRRO
- Statistical challenges in estimating past climate changes. WIRES Computational Statistics, 10(5). View this article in WRRO
- Interpretation of lake sediment accumulation rates. The Holocene, 26(7), 1092-1102. View this article in WRRO
- Archaeological sequence diagrams and Bayesian chronological models. Journal of Archaeological Science, 63, 84-93. View this article in WRRO
- On being a good Bayesian. World Archaeology, 47(4), 567-584.
- Transatlantic distribution of the Alaskan White River Ash. Geology, 42(10), 875-878.
- Looking forward through the past: Identification of 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. Journal of Ecology, 102(1), 256-267.
- IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 1869-1887.
- SELECTION AND TREATMENT OF DATA FOR RADIOCARBON CALIBRATION: AN UPDATE TO THE INTERNATIONAL CALIBRATION (INTCAL) CRITERIA. RADIOCARBON, 55(4), 1923-1945.
- Shcal13 Southern Hemisphere calibration, 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 1889-1903.
- The Bayesian approach to radiocarbon calibration curve estimation: The IntCal13, Marine13, and SHCal13 methodologies. Radiocarbon, 55(4), 1905-1922.
- A review of statistical chronology models for high-resolution, proxy-based Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(21-22), 2948-2960.
- Bayesian Glaciological Modelling to quantify uncertainties in ice core chronologies. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(21-22), 2961-2975.
- View this article in WRRO
- View this article in WRRO
- A flexible approach to assessing synchroneity of past events using Bayesian reconstructions of sedimentation history. QUATERNARY SCI REV, 27(19-20), 1872-1885. View this article in WRRO
- Estimating radiocarbon calibration curves. BAYESIAN ANAL, 3(2), 225-248. View this article in WRRO
- Estimating radiocarbon calibration curves Rejoinder. BAYESIAN ANAL, 3(2), 263-268.
- A calendar chronology for Pleistocene mammoth and horse extinction in North America based on Bayesian radiocarbon calibration. QUATERNARY SCI REV, 26(17-18), 2031-2035.
- Comment on "Radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired Th-230/U-234/U-238 and C-14 dates on pristine corals" by R.G. Fairbanks et al. (Quaternary Science Reviews 24 (2005) 1781-1796) and "Extending the radiocarbon calibration beyond 26,000 years before present using fossil corals" by T.-C. Chin et al. (Quaternary Science Reviews 24 (2005) 1797-1808). QUATERNARY SCI REV, 25(7-8), 855-862.
- Important features of the new radiocarbon calibration curves. QUATERNARY SCI REV, 25(5-6), 408-413.
- Bayesian tools for tephrochronology. HOLOCENE, 13(5), 639-647.
Chapters
- Ice Cores and Emulation: Learning More About Past Ice Sheet Shapes, Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics (pp. 175-182). Springer International Publishing
- Front Matter, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. i-xiii). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Statistics in Practice, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 322-323). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Index, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 313-321). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Areas for Research, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 223-226). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Published Examples of the Formal Elicitation of Expert Opinion, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 193-216). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Multiple Experts, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 179-192). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- The Elicitation Context, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 25-31). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Eliciting and Fitting a Parametric Distribution, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 121-151). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Eliciting Distributions - General, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 97-119). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Author Index, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 307-312). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Fundamentals of Probability and Judgement, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 1-24). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Evaluating Elicitation, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 161-177). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Guidance on Best Practice, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 217-222). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- The Psychology of Judgement Under Uncertainty, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 33-59). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Eliciting Distributions - Uncertainty and Imprecision, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 153-160). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- The Elicitation of Probabilities, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 61-96). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Glossary, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 227-265). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
- Bibliography, Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities (pp. 267-306). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Conference proceedings papers
- Uncertain Judgements: Eliciting Experts' Probabilities. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
- Research group
- Grants
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Current grants, as Principal Investigator
Heritage Data Analytics: Sustainable strategies for large and complex stratigraphic and chronometric data AHRC Past grants, as Principal Investigator Uncertainty in Palaeoclimate International Network Leverhulme Statistical Support for BAS Palaeoclimate Studies BAS Tools for constructing chronologies: crossing disciplinary boundaries NERC Past grants, as Coinvestigator
The future of the past: A robust framework for the upgrade and development of the international radiocarbon calibration/comparison curves (IntCal) NERC Out of Asia / A New Framework for Dating the Spread of Agriculture in Europe NERC The future of the past: A robust framework for the upgrade and development of the international radiocarbon calibration/comparison curves
- Teaching activities
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MAS279 Career Development Skills MAS400 Project Presentation in Mathematics and Statistics MAS6041 MSc Stats Dissertation