Dr. Rosaria Simone is Assistant Professor in Statistics at the Department of Political Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II (Italy). In September 2019, she got awarded the Italian National Qualification for Associate Professor in Statistics. Current research interests and expertise in statistical methodology and applications include: categorical data analysis and modeling, with focus on ordinal rating and ranking data; tree-based classification and regression techniques, model selection and uncertainty measurement; computational aspects; mixture distributions and flexible modelling. All methodological research has broad applicative potential for studies on perceptions (well-being, satisfaction, health, risks, etc.) and preferences (marketing studies, consumers’ behavior and so on), and her expertise in sports psychology precisely relies on these applications. Many of these studies relate to the participation in national and international research projects, among which:

• ·‘Big data analytics in sports’ (https://bdsports.unibs.it/), coordinated by Prof. Paola Zuccolotto and Prof. Marica Manisera

• ‘CUBREMOT’ project on model-based classification and regression trees funded by the University of Naples Federico II, Principal Investigator Dr. Carmela Cappelli (ref.cod. RBFR12SHVV)

• SHAPE – Statistical Modelling of Human Perceptions and Evaluations (http://www.labstat.it/home/research/projects/shape/).