Mark Gardener

I started out as an optician but returned to science and completed my education with a degree from the Open University. I always wanted to be an ecologist and my degree enabled me to undertake research and I later gained a PhD in pollination ecology.

I've worked around the world and carried out field work in Australia and the United States as well as throughout the UK. After returning from research at the University of Hawai'i I began to do more teaching. I work as an Associate Lecturer with the Open University and also with the Field Studies Council.

More recently I have begun to write about ecology and science and in particular the process of collecting and analysing data. I have become familiar with the R program for statistical computing (open sources and free) and run courses in learning R as well as writing about it. My first book: "Statistics for Ecologists" is about the process of data analysis and is more than just a recipe for carrying out various statistical analyses. I've included notes on the collecting of data, and the writing up of the results as well as details about a range of analytical methods.

I am also in the process of writing a book on the R program called "Beginning R". This is aimed at teaching users how to get to grips with this powerful and flexible program. This book will be useful for anyone who needs to analyse datu, not just ecologists.

My next projects:

A follow-up to the "Statistics for Ecologists" and will focus on community analyses. I plan to cover biodiversity and a range of multivariate analyses.

A reference guide for R, the statistical programming language. This will be a kind of cross between a dictionary, thesaurus and glossary. "The Essential R Reference"