This is a list of relevant projects that I have been involved in, and academic/non-academic publications. More on Researchgate.
Indicators
Academic papers
Book chapters
Reports and articles
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Full CV
Last updated: March 16, 2021
Email: william.becker@bluefoxdata.eu
Location: Ispra, Italy
The COINr R Package, in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. COINr is an open-source comprehensive development and analysis environment for composite indicators in R.
The Quality Infrastructure for Sustainable Development Index/Scoreboard for the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). Lead developer.
The Global Innovation Index for the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). Technical consultant.
The Water-Energy-Food Nexus Index. Technical consultant.
The EU Bioeconomy Monitoring Framework for the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy. Technical consultant.
The PV Decentralised Energy Investments Index for the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Technical consultant.
The Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor, for the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Technical consultant.
The Sustainable Development Goals Index and Dashboards for the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Auditor.
The Global Talent Competitiveness Index for INSEAD and the ADECCO Group. Auditor (repeatedly since 2016).
The ASEM Sustainable Connectivity Indexes and Portal, for the European External Action Service and the Asia-Europe Meeting. Lead developer.
Performance indicators for EU spending programmes for the European Commission DG Budget. Technical consultant.
The Financial Secrecy Index for the Tax Justice Network. Auditor and technical consultant.
The Water Retention Index, for the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. Technical consultant.
The Regional Europe 2020 Index, measuring progress in sustainable development, for the European Commission’s DG for Regional and Urban Policy. Co-developer.
Becker, W., Paruolo, P., Saltelli, A., (2021) Variable selection in regression models using global sensitivity analysis Journal of Time Series Econometrics https://doi.org/10.1515/jtse-2018-0025
Razavi, S., Jakeman, A., Saltelli, A., […] Becker, W., […] (2020) The Future of Sensitivity Analysis: An Essential Discipline for Systems Modeling and Policy Support, Environmental Modelling & Software, 137, 104954 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2020.104954
Becker, W., Norlén, H., Dijkstra, L., Athanasoglou, S., (2020) Wrapping up the Europe 2020 Strategy: a Multidimensional Indicator Analysis. Environmental and Sustainability Indicators, 8, 100075 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2020.100075
Becker, W. (2020). Metafunctions for benchmarking in sensitivity analysis. Reliability Engineering & System Safety, 204, 107189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2020.107189
Robert, N., … , Becker, W., … (2020), Development of a bioeconomy monitoring framework for the European Union: an integrative and collaborative approach. New Bioeconomy, 59, 10-19 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbt.2020.06.001
Saltelli, A., Aleksankina, K., Becker, W., Fennell, P., Ferretti, F., Holst, N., Li, S. & Wu, Q. (2019). Why so many published sensitivity analyses are false: A systematic review of sensitivity analysis practices. Environmental Modelling & Software, 114, 29-39 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2019.01.012
Sheikholeslami, R., Razavi, S., Gupta, H. V., Becker, W., & Haghnegahdar, A. (2019). Global sensitivity analysis for high-dimensional problems: How to objectively group factors and measure robustness and convergence while reducing computational cost. Environmental modelling & software, 111, 282-299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.09.002
W. E. Becker, S. Tarantola & G. Deman, Sensitivity analysis approaches to high-dimensional screening problems at low sample size, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 88(11): 2089-2110, 2018, DOI: 10.1080/00949655.2018.1450876
Worden, K., Becker, W. E., Rogers, T. J., & Cross, E. J., On the confidence bounds of Gaussian process NARX models and their higher-order frequency response functions. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 104, 188-223, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/00949655.2018.1450876
Vandecasteele, I., Marí i Rivero, I., Baranzelli, C., Becker, W., Dreoni, I., Lavalle, C., Batelaan, O., The Water Retention Index: Using land use planning to manage water resources in Europe. Sustainable Development: Special Issue on “How New Sustainable Development Approaches are Responding to Society Challenges”, 26(2): 122-131, 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1723
Becker, W., Saisana, M., Paruolo, P., Vandecasteele, I., Weights and Importance in Composite Indicators: Closing the Gap, Ecological Indicators, 80: 12-22, 2017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2017.03.056
Sartor, P., Worden, K., Becker, W., Schmidt, R. K., Bond, D., Bayesian Sensitivity Analysis of Flight Parameters in a Hard Landing Analysis Process, Journal of Aircraft, 53(5): 1317-1331, 2016 https://doi.org/10.2514/1.C032757
Saltelli, A., Stark, P., Becker, W., Stano, P., 2015, Climate Models as Economic Guides: Scientific Challenge or Quixotic Quest? Issues in Science and Technology, Spring 2015: 79-84 https://issues.org/climate-models-as-economic-guides-scientific-challenge-or-quixotic-quest/
Tobias Lung, Alessandro Dosio, William Becker, Carlo Lavalle and Laurens M. Bouwer, 2013, Assessing the influence of climate model uncertainty on EU-wide climate change impact indicators Climatic Change, 120: 211-227 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-013-0825-1
Becker W and Worden K, 2013, Bayesian Sensitivity Analysis of Bifurcating Nonlinear Models, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 34(1-2): 57-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.05.010
Becker, W., Oakley, J.E., Surace, C., Gili, P., Rowson, J., Worden, K., 2012. Bayesian sensitivity analysis of a nonlinear finite element model. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing 32, 18–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.03.009
Tarantola S, Becker W and Zeitz D, 2012, A comparison of two sampling methods for global sensitivity analysis, Computer Physics Communications, 183: 1061-1072 2012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpc.2011.12.015
Worden, K and Becker, W, On the identification of hysteretic systems, Part II: Bayesian sensitivity analysis and parameter confidence, Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 29: 213-227, 2012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2012.01.005
Batterbee, DC, Sims ND, Becker, W, Worden, K. and Rowson, J. Computational model of an infant brain subjected to periodic motion simplified modelling and Bayesian sensitivity analysis Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part H: Journal of Engineering in Medicine, 225(11): 1036-1049, 2011 (Winner of the 2011 Duncan Dowson Prize) https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0954411911420002
W. Becker, J. Rowson, J.E. Oakley, A. Yoxall, G. Manson, K. Worden Bayesian sensitivity analysis of a model of the aortic valve. Journal of Biomechanics, 44:1499–1506, 2011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2011.03.008
Becker, W., K. Worden, M. Battipede, and C. Surace, Uncertainty Analysis of a Dynamic Model of a Novel Remotely-Piloted Airship. Journal of Aircraft, 48(3): 1028-1035, 2011 https://doi.org/10.2514/1.C031207
Worden, K., W. Becker, M. Battipede, and C. Surace, Aspects of uncertainty analysis for large nonlinear computer models. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 2010. 24-25: p. 24-41. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.24-25.25
Munda, G., Albrecht, D., Becker, W., Havari, E., Listorti, G., Ostlaender, N., … & Saisana, M. (2020). The Use of Quantitative Methods in the Policy Cycle. In Science for Policy Handbook (pp. 206-222). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-822596-7.00018-8
Saisana, M., Becker, W., Dominguez-Torreiro, M., The JRC Statistical Audit of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2017. In The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2017: Talent and Technology, Chapter: 7, Publisher: INSEAD, Adecco, and HCLI, Editors: Bruno Lanvin, Paul Evans, pp.85-98
Becker, W., Paruolo, P., Saisana, M., Saltelli, A., (2016) Weights and Importance in Composite Indicators: Mind the Gap. In Handbook of Uncertainty Quantification, Chapter: 4, Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Editors: Roger Ghanem, David Higdon, Houman Owhadi, pp.1-30
Tarantola, S. and Becker, W., (2016) Simlab 4.0 for Global Sensitivity Analysis. In Handbook of Uncertainty Quantification, Springer International Publishing, Editors: Roger Ghanem, David Higdon, Houman Owhadi, pp.1-21
Becker, W. and Saltelli, A. (2015) Design for sensitivity analysis. In Handbook of Design and Analysis of Experiments, Chapman & Hall/CRC, Editors: Angela Dean, Max Morris, John Stufken, Derek Bingham, pp.627 -673
Article for the World Economic Forum on the Economic ties between Asia and Europe.
Exploring ASEM Sustainable Connectivity – What brings Asia and Europe together?, 2019, ISBN 978-92-79-99726-6, doi:10.2760/738153