About me
I am an assistant professor in Applied Statistics at the Mathematical Institute at Leiden University. I have strong interest in the communication of statistics and like to collaborate in interdisciplinary projects on this topic.
Research interests
- Optimal scaling regression, specifically in GLMs and survival analysis
- Statistics Communication
Selection of current activities
- Project Optimal Scaling in GLMs, including the development of an R-package
- Reading group “Statistics Communication and (in)numeracy”
- Using factchecks to combat misleading graphs, collaboration with Winnifred Wijnker, Ionica Smeets and Peter Burger. Funded by LUF.
- Chair of Statistics Communication Section of the Netherlands Society for Statistics and Operations Research (VVSOR)
- Implementation of lesson plan to improve critical thinking regarding statistics in secondary school students – lesson plan developed by students from the Science Communication & Society master specialisation (Annelies Smit, Jesse van Welzenes, Manon Boot, Neele Dijkstra and Soraya Schachtschabel)

Contact
Mathematical Institute – Leiden University
Snellius Building, office 2.30
Niels Bohrweg 1
2333 CA Leiden
Telephone: +31 71 527 7091
E-mail: s.j.w.willems@math.leidenuniv.nl