Mentoring philosophy: Working with student collaborators is definitely my favorite part of working in academia. I constantly look for opportunities to learn how to become a more supportive and nurturing mentor. Each student is driven by different areas of statistics and their applications, so my main job is to help my student collaborators find their statistical passion. One of the strategies that I use is involving group members in applied collaborative projects in addition to methodological ones, so they can see how subject matter scientists use statistics in their work. I like experimenting with ways to maintain a warm and collegial group environment, where group members help each other and information and ideas flow within the group freely. All of the above are aspirations and getting closer to these goals continues to be learning process for me.
Current Advisees (in alphabetical order)
- Thanasi Bakis, UCI Statistics PhD student
- Christian Bernal, UCI Statistics PhD student
- Isaac Goldstein, UCI Statistics PhD student
- Catalina Medina, UCI Statistics PhD student
- Jessalyn Sebastian, UCI Statistis PhD student
Past Advisees
PhD Students (in reverse chronological order), Math Genealogy page
- Damon Bayer, PhD, UCI Statistics (2023)
Dissertation: Inference and forecasting using infectious disease surveillance data
Current position: Data Analyst, Glooko
- Yushang Lai, PhD, UCI Mathematical, Computational and Systems Biology (2023), co-advised with John Lowengrub
Dissertation: Hierarchical Bayesian modeling, model selection, and optimal experimental design for hematopoiesis dynamics
Current position: Data Scientist, Walmart Global Tech
- Andy Magee, PhD, UW Biology (2021), co-advised with Eric Matsen
Dissertation: Reliable and interpretable inference of evolutionary history using Bayesian phylogenetic approaches
Current position: Data Scientist, CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics
- Mingwei Tang, PhD, UW Statistics PhD (2019)
Dissertation: Fitting stochastic epidemic models to multiple data types
Current position: Research Data Scientist, Meta
- Amrit Dhar, PhD, UW Statistics (2019), co-advised with Eric Matsen
Dissertation: Large-scale B cell receptor sequence analysis using phylogenetics and machine learning
Current position: Machine Learning Scientist, Amazon
- Jim Faulkner, PhD, UW QERM (2019)
Dissertation: Adaptive Bayesian nonparametric smoothing with Markov random fields and shrinkage priors
Current position: Mathematical Statistician, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency
- Jon Fintzi, PhD, UW Biostatistics (2018), co-advised with Jon Wakefield
Dissertation: Bayesian modeling of partially observed epidemic count data
Current position: Mathematical Statistician, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- Michael Karcher, PhD, UW Statistics (2018)
Dissertation: Preferential sampling and model checking in phylodynamic inference
Current position: Assistant Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science, Muhlenberg College
- Jason Xu, PhD, UW Statistics (2016)
Dissertation: Likelihood-based inference for partially observed multi-type Markov branching processes
Current position: Assistant Professor of Statistical Science, Duke University
- Jan Irvahn, PhD, UW Statistics (2016)
Dissertation: Phylogenetic stochastic mapping
Current position: Statistician, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
- Amanda Koepke, PhD, UW Statistics (2015), co-advised with Ira Longini
Dissertation: Predictive modeling of cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh
Current position: Mathematical Statistician, National Institute of Standards and Technology
- Jane Lange, PhD, UW Biostatistics (2014)
Dissertation: Latent continuous time Markov chains for partially-observed multistate disease processes
Current position: Staff Scientist, Oregon Health & Science University
- Peter Chi, PhD, UW Biostatistics (2013)
Dissertation: Problems in pedigrees and phylogenies
Current position: Associate Professor of Statistics, Villanova University
- Julia Palacios, PhD, UW Statistics (2013)
Dissertation: Bayesian nonparametric inference of effective population size trajectories from genomic data
Current position: Associate Professor at Stanford University
- Soyoung Ryu, PhD, UW Statistics (2011), co-advised with Dave Goodlett
Dissertation: Statistical approaches to analyze mass spectrometry data
Current posision: Associate Professor of Biostatistics, University of Nevada, Reno
Postdoctoral Scholars (in reverse chronological order)
- Jamie Oaks, UW Biology NSF Biological Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow (2013-2016), co-mentored with Adam Leaché
Current position: Associate Professor, Auburn University and Senior Manager, Adaptive Biotechnologies
- Charles Linkem, UW Biology NSF Biological Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow (2012-2015), co-mentored with Adam Leaché
Current position: Director of Computational Biology, Adaptive Biotechnologies
Research Assistants (in reverse chronological order)
- Jessica George, BS, UCI Data Science (2020)
Research project: COVID-19 trends at UC Irvine and Orange County, CA
Current position: Biostatistics PhD Student, University of Southern California
- Thanasi Bakis, MS, UCI Statistics (2020)
Research project: COVID-19 trends at UC Irvine and Orange County, CA
Current position: PhD Student, UCI Statistics Department
- Xiaoxiao Li, BS, UW Statistics (2016)
Research project: Predicting seasonal human influenza evolution
Current position: Data and Applied Scientist II at Azure AI
- Charles Doss, Graduate Research Assistant (2009-2010)
Research project: Fitting birth-death processes to panel data
Current position: Associate Professor at University of Minnesota
- Dustin Lennon, MS, UW Statistics (2010)
Research project: Measuring microsatellite conservation with a phylogenetic birth-death model
Current position: Statistical Consultant, Inferentialist, LLC
Last modified: November, 2023