Dr. Giovanni Merola
Raised and educated in Rome, Italy, Giovanni completed a double major Bachelor degree in Statistics and Economics from the university La Sapienza in Rome. He completed his Masters and Ph.D. in Statistics at the University of Waterloo in 1994 and 1998, respectively. He was associate professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalunya in Spain, then moved to work in the area of Privacy Protection first at the National Statistics Office (ISTAT) in Rome and then at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in London, UK. He was employed for several years at a large hedge fund based in London, UK, researching systematic trading strategies for Futures. He returned to Academia in 2010, first at RMIT Vietnam and then at Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China and later in India.
Giovanni’s research interests span from Multivariate Analysis to Privacy Protection and Statistical Learning, with a strong interest in computation, data analysis and visualization. He authored several refereed publications. He is proficient in programming, favouring the statistical language R and C++0, among others.
ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Tertiary Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning (2012)
RMIT, Australia
- Ph.D. in Statistics (1998)
University of Waterloo, Canada
- Masters in Mathematics (Statistics) (1994)
University of Waterloo, Canada
- Bachelor Degree (Laurea) double major in Statistics and Economics (1992)
University “La Sapienza”, Roma
PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS
- British University Vietnam (BUV)
Senior Lecturer (2025 – Present)
-
Alliance University & MIT World Peace University (India)
Professor (2022 – 2023)
-
Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China)
Lecturer V (2016 – 2022)
-
RMIT University (Vietnam)
Senior Lecturer (2010 – 2016)
-
Winton Capital Management
Quantitative Analyst ( 2006 – 2009)
-
ISTAT (Italy) & ONS (UK)
Senior Methodologist (2002 – 2006)
-
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain)
Associate Professor (1999 – 2001)
RESEARCH AREAS
-
Multivariate Analysis
-
Computational Statistics
-
Machine Learning
RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS
-
Merola, G. M. & Chen, G. (2019). Projection sparse principal component analysis: An efficient least squares method. Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 173, 366–382.
-
McCauley, B., Gumbley, S., Merola, G. M. & Do, T. (2016). Facebook in Vietnam: Uses, Gratifications & Narcissism. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 4(11), 69–79. Link
-
Merola, G. & Abraham, B. (2002). Dimensionality Reduction Approach to Multivariate Prediction. Computational Statistics and Data Analysis, Special Issue on PLS.
RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS & EXHIBITIONS
-
62nd ISI World Statistics Congress, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (2019)
Topic: Improved estimation of wealth indices from asset counts -
61st ISI World Statistics Congress, Marrakech, Morocco (2017)
Topic: High-frequency financial time series, pattern recognition and volatility -
International Symposium on Business and Industrial Statistics (ISBIS), Bangkok, Thailand (2012)
Topic: A new framework for measuring disclosure risk for tabular data
RESEARCH GRANTS
-
2019 – Summer Undergraduate Research Framework Grant, Xian Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Project: Analysis of Chinese stock prices with respect to risk reward – 5,000 RMB -
2019 – Research Development Fund, Liverpool University
Project: Reducing the effect of data clumping in the estimation of wealth indices – 60,400 RMB
Collaborators: Dr. Bob Baulch (IFPRI, Malai), Prof. Marco Bonetti (Bocconi, Italy), Dr. Yang Chen (XJTLU) -
2012 – Personal Grant, Italian Institute for Commerce, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Project: Analysis of the perception of “Made in Italy” in Vietnam – 20,000 USD
Collaborator: Dr. Mattia Miani
- Share
Read more 
Senior Lecturer
Dr. Shashi ChaudharyShashi, born and raised in Nepal, completed a Bachelor’s degree (BA) in Economics and Mathematics and a Master’s degree (MA) in Economics from Tribhuvan University, Nepal. He started his career in higher education as a Lecturer in Economics at the School of Business, Pokhara University, Nepal, where he worked for two years before moving to […]
Senior Teaching Fellow
Scott David CooperRaised and educated in New York, New York City, Scott completed a Bachelor degree in Media Communications (Animation, Cartooning, Illustration) from the School of Visual Arts 1986. Following graduation in 1986, he moved to California for a job in animation field with Filmation that fell through. This encouraged him to explore the new world of graphic […]
Associate Professor
Assoc. Prof. Anchit BijalwanDr. Anchit Bijalwan is an academician, researcher, consultant and mentor with 15 years of teaching experience for graduate, postgraduate students, and Ph.D. He successfully completed many projects from the UN, DST and AMIT. Dr. Anchit has authored two books and published more than forty research papers in reputed international journals and conferences. He is also […]
Associate Lecturer
Ajay PillaiAjay Kumar Pillai is employed as a full-time faculty in British University Vietnam (BUV) and is the programme leader for Finance and Economics. He has an MBA from University of Surrey, UK and holds certificates from The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, UK (CIMA) and The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). His main […]
Senior Teaching Fellow
Sven PfrommerSven is a well-rounded creative director & visual artist, with a background in visual communication and 20+ years of industry experience. He was running a design & advertising agency and established a gallery for contemporary photography in the art capital Berlin. Sven was born in Berlin, studied visual communication design at the HAWK University of […]
Lecturer - Academic Ambassador
Dr. Madura Thiwanka PathiranaDr. Madura Thivanka Pathirana is a Sri Lankan and Australian academic specializing in sustainable tourism and business management. He holds a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK, and currently serves as a Senior Lecturer at Edith Cowan University Sri Lanka. In 2025, he completed a Research Fellowship in […]
Lecturer
Dr. Daphne LauBefore joining BUV, Daphne served as a Research Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (AACSB and EQUIS accredited). She holds a Ph.D. in Accountancy from the City University of Hong Kong (AACSB and EQUIS accredited). Daphne was awarded a Hong Kong Ph.D. Fellowship by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special […]
Teaching Practitioner
Nhu Huong TraTra Nhu is an illustrator and printmaker creating welcoming and inclusive visual solutions. As an art coordinator and educator, Tra organizes workshops, fairs and community events in Vietnam and the UK. Tra earned a Bachelor of Professional Communication from RMIT University and recently graduated with a MA Illustration from University of the Arts London. From […]
Associate Lecturer
Alex Gaja OrtegaAfter completing a Master’s Degree in Architecture and various other academic, professional and research experiences in Spain, Poland, France and Japan, in 2015, Alex arrived in Vietnam, where he developed his career both in design consultancy for international offices and higher education. Among his recent professional milestones worth highlighting is the Cityscape Awards in 2019 […]
Dean (Higher Education)
Dr. Mark WheatonRaised and educated in Australia, Mark completed a bachelor’s degree in economics as a mature student at Adelaide University. Following graduation in 1983, Mark commenced employment as an Accountant for a subsidiary of BHP, in Sydney. Many positions followed working in government and banking until the year 2000 when he establishes a successful accounting business. […]
