Richard Anderson
Richard Anderson
Dr. Richard Anderson is a Lead Decision Scientist at Cox Automotive. Dr. Anderson has over 15 years of experience in data science and decision science, an interdisciplinary field working to understand how individuals and populations make optimal choices. Before his employment at Cox Automotive, Dr. Anderson was a data and decision scientist at multiple companies, such as Target MarkeTeam and Galvanize. Before working in the private and non-profit sectors, he worked in academia and for the government. Dr. Anderson previously worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a risk analyst. He was also an Assistant Professor at Duke University in the Nicholas School of the Environment. He has broad interests in engineering and decision analysis. Particular areas of application include biases in preference assessment and Bayesian network models in natural resource management. He holds a Ph.D. in environmental systems analysis from Johns Hopkins University's Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering.
"Regardless of how you want to get involved, be familiar with the science involved as best you can." - Richard Anderson, 2016
Anderson, R. M., B.F. Hobbs, and J.F. Koonce, Modeling effects of forest cover reduction on larval walleye survival in Lake Erie tributary spawning basins, Ecosystems no. 9 (2006), pp. 725-730.
Anderson, R.M., V.I. Koren, and S.M. Reed, Using SSURGO data to improve Sacramento model a priori parameter estimates, Journal of Hydrology no. 320 (2006), pp. 103-116.
Anderson, R.M., and B.F. Hobbs, Using a Bayesian approach to quantify scale compatibility bias, Management Science, vol. 48 no. 12 (2002), pp. 1555-1568.
Anderson, R.M., B.F. Hobbs, J.F. Koonce, and A.B. Locci, Using Decision Analysis to choose Phosphorus targets for Lake Erie, Environmental Management, vol. 27 no. 2 (2001), pp. 235-252.
Richard Anderson describes his growth into an environmental science professional as an evolutionary process. “It was always a latent interest, but emerged in a way I don’t fully understand,” he explains. “I think growing up in Jamaica might have had something to do with it. I have wonderful memories of growing up there…it was very much a tropical paradise. I have always had a love for the outdoors and was driven by that” (2016).
Dr. Anderson began his college career studying engineering. He received his B.S. in engineering mechanics from Johns Hopkins University and worked as a nuclear safety analyst for Westinghouse Electric in Pittsburgh. However, a summer program with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed him the different applications his skills could bring to the environmental field. Inspired by the experience, Anderson returned to Johns Hopkins to earn his Ph.D. from the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering.
Dr. Anderson's doctoral thesis is a springboard to several opportunities in the field. The primary paper that developed from his research, which applied decision analysis in the Lake Erie ecosystem, earned him recognition from professional colleagues in the group INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences). Additional thesis work in watershed hydrology helped him secure a post-doctoral position doing hydrologic modeling research with the National Weather Service. Subsequently, he spent a year in Washington D.C. at the U. S. Department of Agriculture as an American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science-Policy Fellow, where he was involved in water quality modeling research. He had the opportunity to observe the interaction of science and policymaking. Three years after completing his Ph.D., he was invited to interview for a faculty position at Duke's Nicholas School for the Environment despite having shifted his attention away from academia as an immediate career goal. This opportunity culminated with a job offer as an Assistant Professor and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Policy.
As Dr. Anderson settled into his role as a professor, he acknowledged that getting started as an academic is challenging. "The first year is the toughest," he said, "because you have to get going in teaching and decide where to devote your efforts research-wise while avoiding the tendency to compare yourself to more established researchers." After two years at Duke, Dr. Anderson added advising Ph.D. students to his other teaching and research tasks. He worked for the university until 2012, during which in the last two years of his teaching, he held a joint appointment at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a Risk and Decision Scientist (2010-2012).
While Dr. Anderson taught at Duke University, he also served as the Risk and Decision Scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This laboratory is part of the U.S. Department of Energy and frequently collaborates with academic institutions. At PNNL, Dr. Anderson conducted risk and decision analysis for projects such as the power grid, marine hydrokinetics, and carbon sequestration.
In mid-2012, Dr. Anderson left academia to establish Richard Anderson Decision Analysis and Natural Resources Management, where he provides consulting services. For two years, from 2012 to 2014, he worked at the Puget Sound Institute to aid with protecting and restoring Puget Sound using decision analysis. Specifically, he led the development of technical procedures and processes for teams of natural resource managers, helping them select local priorities based on science. These priorities provided a framework to meet regional goals for the recovery of Puget Sound by 2020. After this project, Dr. Anderson became the sole proprietor at Richard Anderson Decision Analysis and Natural Resources Management, LLC.
As he took on the role of sole proprietor, Dr. Anderson became a Data Science Fellow for Galvanize Inc. for 12 weeks in 2015. He conducted data analysis and applied machine learning. By building a machine learning model, Dr. Anderson predicted pothole repair times for the City of Seattle for his capstone project.
The beginning of 2016 marked a time of transition geographically and career-wise. With these experiences under his belt, Dr. Anderson closed up his LLC and transitioned to a new role as the Data Scientist for Target MarkeTeam in the Greater Atlanta Area from 2016 to 2018. Currently, he is the Lead Decision Scientist for Cox Automotive.
When this interview was conducted in 2016, Anderson said he did not have "sufficient perspective" to reflect on his achievements because his career was still very new. He was pleased with the success his dissertation research has earned him, both in terms of professional positioning and opening up opportunities for research collaborations. However, he hoped the defining moments of his career were yet to come. "There will be opportunities for me to get involved in other research contexts that will hopefully lead to significant things," he said. "One important aspect of what I want to do is get involved in 'real' decision-making contexts" (2016).
In terms of advising, Anderson cites his undergraduate and Ph.D. advisors as examples of good mentors, both of whom "went beyond the call of duty in many ways and pushed [him] into opportunities" (2016).
Anderson says that his enjoyment and care for the outdoors, in combination with perseverance, accounts for his decision to stick with a career in the environmental field. "I think that we need to develop ways to make better environmental decisions," he says. "That needs to be the focus of more research—developing systematic, rigorous ways for making environmental decisions." He notes that there are various ways to get involved in the environmental field and encourages minorities interested in ecological careers to, first and foremost, know their interests. "There are so many different ways to come at the environment—legal aspects, advocacy, science," he says. "It's certainly important to think about what you're good at and what you enjoy" (2016). He suggests the Internet as one resource to get started looking for internships or summer experiences that give students a taste of the environmental field and help bolster their credentials.
Whatever aspect of the environmental field they may be interested in, Anderson advises young people to know the science surrounding environmental issues. "Regardless of how you want to get involved, be familiar with the science involved as best you can," he says. "There's too much alarmism about many popular environmental issues and insufficient understanding of what different scientific opinions and perspectives say and the uncertainties. Even at the most basic level, you must be familiar with the science" (2016).
(UM-VSEF) Interview conducted by Multicultural Environmental Leadership Development Initiative staff. 2016. University of Michigan – School of Natural Resources and Environment. Ann Arbor, MI.
Anderson, Richard. Puget Sound Institute. University of Washington Tacoma. https://www.pugetsoundinstitute.org/author/richard-anderson/
Richard Anderson. (n.d.). LinkedIn. Retrieved January 19, 2024 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/andersonrichardm/
Richard Anderson [Photo]. (n.d.). LinkedIn. Retrieved January 19, 2024 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/andersonrichardm/