Statistician, currently Assistant Professor in Tenure-Track (RTD-B) at the Department of Economics, Business and Statistics of Università degli Studi di Palermo. Previously, postdoctoral researcher at University of Palermo, working on variable selection models and robust statistics. My research interests are related to the area of applied statistical learning, with particular focus on robust models. I am a passionate R user.

Breaking news

  • New Article! Sparse inference of the human haematopoietic system from heterogeneous and partially observed genomic data - Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C: Applied Statistics (joint work with Augugliaro, L, Vinciotti, V & et al.)

  • New Article! A comprehensive environmental exposure indicator and respiratory health in asthmatic children: a case study - in Environmental and Ecological Statistics (joint work with Cilluffo, G & et al.)

  • Future Conference! SIS 2025 - Statistics for innovation, that will be held in Genoa on June 16-18, 2025

Interests

  • Variable selection
  • Statistical learning
  • Quantile regression
  • Robust statistics
  • Model-based clustering and classification

Education

  • PhD in Statistics, 2018

    University of Palermo

  • MSc in Statistical Sciences (with honors), 2014

    University of Palermo

  • BSc in Applied Mathematics, 2012

    University of Palermo

Publications

Selected papers

Muggeo, V.,M.,R., Sottile, G., Cilluffo, G.. Joint modelling of non-crossing additive quantile regression via constrained B-spline varying coefficients. Statistical Modelling, 2023.

Link

Augugliaro, L., Sottile, G., Wit, E.C., Vinciotti, V.. cglasso An R Package for Conditional Graphical Lasso Inference with Censored and Missing Values. Journal of Statistical Software, 2023.

Link Code

Tumminello, M., Bertolazzi, G., Sottile, G., Sciaraffa, N., Arancio, W., Coronnello, C.. A multivariate statistical test for differential expression analysis. Scientific Reports, 2022.

Link Code

Picone, F., Sottile, G., Fazio, C., Chemello, R.. The neglected status of the vermetid reefs in the Mediterranean Sea. A systematic map. Ecological Indicators, 2022.

Link

Sottile, G., Frumento, P.. Robust estimation and regression with parametric quantile functions. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, 2022.

Link Code

See all publications

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Teaching Assistant

University of Palermo

September 2023 – Present Department of Economics, Business and Statistics
Course in Optimization for Statistical and Machine Learning (6CFU) at the Master Degree in Statistics and Data Science
 
 
 
 
 

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor

University of Palermo

August 2022 – Present Department of Economics, Business and Statistics
 
 
 
 
 

Teaching Assistant

University of Palermo

March 2021 – Present Department of Economics, Business and Statistics
Course in Financial Markets Laboratory (3CFU) at the Master Degree in Statistics and Data Science
 
 
 
 
 

Assistant Professor

University of Palermo

July 2019 – July 2022 Department of Economics, Business and Statistics
 
 
 
 
 

Teaching Assistant

University of Palermo

March 2019 – February 2020 Department of Architecture
BSc course in Statistics (6 CFU)
 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

University of Palermo

March 2018 – February 2019 Department of Economics, Business and Statistics and Department of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences
Applicazioni di tecniche statistiche per la selezione di Single Nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) utili alla definizione di un modello di tracciabilità/autenticazione di prodotti lattiero-caseari tipici e/o con marchi DOP ottenuti da razze ovine autoctone siciliane
 
 
 
 
 

Teaching Assistant

University of Palermo

March 2018 – February 2019 Department of Biology and Natural Sciences
BSc course in Statistics (6 CFU)
 
 
 
 
 

Visiting Researcher

University of Palermo

September 2016 – December 2016 The Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
Visiting period during the PhD program under the supervision of Prof. M. Bottai

Software

Packages on CRAN

  1. islasso: The Induced Smoothed Lasso
    link | paper | vignette

  2. Qest: Quantile-Based Estimator
    link | paper

  3. qrcmNP: Nonlinear and Penalized Quantile Regression Coefficients Modeling
    link | paper

  4. clustEff: Clusters of Effects Curves in Quantile Regression Models
    link | paper

Talks and conferences

Recent & Upcoming

EMS 2019

The European Meeting of Statisticians (EMS), sponsored by the European Regional Committee of the Bernoulli Society, is the main conference in statistics and probability in Europe. EMS is a conference where statisticians of all ages and from all regions meet to exchange ideas and talk about the newest developments on the broad field of statistics and probability theory.
Jul 22, 2019 — Jul 26, 2019 University of Palermo
Slides

SIS 2019

Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society - Smart Statistics for Smart Applications
Jun 18, 2019 — Jun 21, 2019 Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
Slides
See all talks

Projects

  1. PON AIM. Modeling of the microRNA system. The activity consists in the creation of models of the specific microRNA-target system for each tissue of interest, including in the models the expression profiles of the system elements. To achieve this goal, some data-sets complete with microRNA and target RNA expression will be selected from public databases (for example NIH-TCGA), useful for teaching and validating the network models developed. Study and development of algorithms for the prediction of genes regulated by microRNAs with network analysis techniques. Starting from the microRNA-target interaction network models created to identify the differences between two tissues of interest, by comparing, for example, the predicted microRNA-target interaction networks for a tumor tissue and for the corresponding healthy tissue from the same patient, it will be It is possible to obtain information on the role of microRNAs in the onset of cancer.
    link

  2. CoViSTAT19. The COVID-19 epidemic calls each of us to act to defend our future. At the forefront it is done in hospitals where health workers (and the sick) fight and in laboratories where, tirelessly, the virus and the disease are studied. There is also a fight in the factories, in the streets where we monitor the application of the rules for the prevention of contagion and we continue to ensure the transit of goods; we fight in the shops for basic necessities (including drugs) that guarantee our subsistence. There is a struggle in government institutions to ensure continuity in the organization of our society. Finally, one fights by staying in one's own homes and observing the prescriptions that have been issued for the safeguarding of the most precious collective good, health. We researchers too are called to make our knowledge and skills available to the community. For this reason we have decided to set up a website through which to make available our analyzes and reflections on the evolution of the COVID-19 epidemic.
    link | code

Contact

  • gianluca.sottile@unipa.it
  • Viale delle Scienze, Ed. 13, Palermo, PA 90128
  • Enter Building 13 and take the stairs to Office 106 on Floor 1
  • Monday to Friday 9:00 to 16:00