Research Interests
McLachlan's research in statistics is in the related fields of classification, cluster and discriminant analyses, image analysis, machine learning, neural networks, and pattern recognition, and in the field of statistical inference. His focus in the latter field has been on the theory and applications of finite mixture models and on estimation via the EM algorithm. A common theme of his research in these fields has been statistical computation, with particular attention being given to the computational aspects of the statistical methodology. This computational theme extends to his more recent interests in the field of data mining. He is also actively involved in research in the field of medical statistics.

Books
The speaker's list of publications includes numerous research articles and four monographs. His third monograph on the EM algorithm (with T. Krishnan) received the Wiley-Interscience outstanding book award for 1997. A fourth monograph on finite mixture models (with David Peel) has just been published.