Recent PhD Graduates

PhD Date	Name	Thesis	PhD Focus Area	Thesis Advisor	Initial Position	Current Position
8/1/2024	Max Sampson	Topics in Conformal Prediction and Causal Inference	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
5/10/2024	Erin Post	Shared Shrinkage Horseshoe Priors for Dirichlet-Tree Multinomial Regression	Statistics	Aixin Tan	Senior Data Scientist, Samsara, San Fransisco CA
12/16/2023	Xingzhi Wang	Variable screening for high-dimensional data via Pearson's chi-square statistics	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
8/4/2023	Alex Liebrecht	Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling and Prediction of Zero-Inflated Continuous-Valued Data Using Two Environmental-Monitoring Networks	Statistics	Kate Cowles (co-chair) and Sanvesh Srivastava (co-chair)	University of Iowa Assistant Professor, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
8/4/2023	Fei Wu	Topics in Matrix Time Series Analysis	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
5/13/2023	Shiao Liu	Error Analyses of Deep Generative Models	Statistics	Jian Huang	Fellowship, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
5/13/2023	Zhen Wang	Bayesian Finite Mixture Regression Models with Cluster-specific Variable Selection	Statistics	Aixin Tan	Data Scientist, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Seattle, WA
5/13/2022	Chunlei Wang	"Bayesian Inference for Large and Complex Data"	Statistics	Sanvesh Srivastava	Data Scientist, Google, Sunnyvale, California
5/13/2022	Xingyu Zhou	"A Generative Approach to Conditional Distribution Estimation and its Variants and Applications"	Statistics	Jian Huang	Senior Research Statistician at Dow Chemical. Houston, Texas
5/13/2022	Hongda Zhang	"A Procedure for Multimodal Brain Tumor Segmentation"	Statistics	Luke Tierney	Post-doc at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
5/13/2022	Ben Lim	"Novel methodologies for life settlements underwriting evaluation and mortality table development"	Statistics with Emphasis on Actuarial Science	N. D. Shyamalkumar	Assistant Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
8/6/2021	Samuel Justice	"Contributions to the Analysis of Vertex Centrality in Randomly Growing Tree Models"	Statistics	N. D. Shyamalkumar and R.P. Russo	Research Scientist Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) Boston, MA USA
8/6/2021	Ruida Song	"Testing, Modeling, and Approximating Nonstationary Continuous Processes on Stream Networks"	Statistics	Dale Zimmerman	Data Scientist, UFG Insurance, Cedar Rapids, IA
8/6/2021	Chuyi Wang	"Feature Screening Rules and Algorithms for Efficient Optimization of Sparse Regression Models"	Statistics	Patrick Breheny	Analyst, Data Science, Liberty Mutual, Boston, MA USA
5/14/2021	Abylay Zhexembay	"Valuation of multi-period barrier options and extensions"	Statistics	Elias Shiu	Unified Accumulative Pension Fund of Kazakhstan
5/14/2021	Xun Li	"Prediction of North Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Activity via Bayesian Variable Selection and Bayesian Model Averaging”	Statistics	Joyee Ghosh	Modeler, Discover, Riverwoods, IL
12/18/2020	Jun Tang	"Space Time Covariance Models on Networks"	Statistics	Dale Zimmerman	Principal Biostatistician, Novartis, East Hanover, NJ
8/7/2020	Rui Huang	"Sparse causal time series analysis"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Assistant Professor, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
8/7/2020	Jin Meng	"Topics in high dimensional statistical learning with applications in property-casualty insurance"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Data Scientist, United Fire Group, Cedar Rapids, IA
8/7/2020	Siyang Tao	"A contribution to modeling tail dependence"	Statistics with Emphasis on Actuarial Science	N.D. Shyamalkumar	Assistant Professor, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
5/15/2020	Yunju Im	"Bayesian Subgroup Analysis in Regression Using Mixture Models"	Statistics	Aixin Tan	Post-doc, Yale University, New Haven, CT
5/15/2020	Rui Jin	"Understanding and Improving MCMC Methods for High-dimensional Problems"	Statistics	Aixin Tan	Research Scientist, Eli Lilly. Indianapolis, IN
5/15/2020	Qiansheng Zhu	“On improved confidence intervals for parameters of discrete distribution"	Statistics	Joseph Lang	Senior Analyst, CITI, Wilmington, DE
12/20/2019	Wenda Tu	"Heterogeneity Pursuit in Regression Analysis"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Visiting Associate, FDA, Washington DC
8/2/2019	Zhijiang (Van) Liu	"Testing Covariance Structure of Spatial Stream Network Data Using Torgegram Components and Subsampling"	Statistics	Dale Zimmerman	Data Scientist, Google, Mountain View, California
8/2/2019	Zhaofeng Tang	"Quantitative Risk Management under Systematic and Systemic Risks"	Statistics with Emphasis on Actuarial Science	Ambrose Lo (co-chair); Qihe Tang (co-chair)	Associate Model Validation, S & P Gp;bal Ratings, Chicago, IL
8/2/2019	Haibo Liu	"Pricing, bankruptcy, and liquidation under insurance and financial risks in a Markovian framework"	Statistics with Emphasis on Actuarial Science	Ambrose Lo (co-chair); Qihe Tang (co-chair)	Postdoctoral Fellow, UNSW, Australia
5/10/2019	Sheng Wang	"Regularized Skewness Parameter Estimation for Multivariate Skew Normal and Skew t Distributions"	Statistics	Dale Zimmerman	Data Scientist, JDA Software, Dallas, TX
12/14/2018	Yingying Liu	"Bayesian Hierarchical Normal Intrinsic Conditional Autoregressive Model for Stream Networks"	Statistics	Kate Cowles and Dale Zimmerman	Biogen, Cambridge, MA
8/3/2018	Riad Jarjour	"Clustering Financial Time Series for Volatility Modeling"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
8/3/2018	Bo Wang	"Structural Change Detection Via Penalized Regression"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Data Scientist at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Iowa City, IA
8/3/2018	Juan Cervantes	"Tempering Spatial Autocorrelation in the Residuals of Linear and Generalized Models by Incorporating Selected Eigenvectors"	Statistics	Kate Cowles
8/3/2018	Fuli Zhang	"Spectral Classification of High Dimensional Time Series"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Sr. Quant Analyst for Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati, OH.
5/11/2018	Xiao Wang	"On Pricing Barrier Options And Exotic Variations"	Statistics with Emphasis on Actuarial Science	Elias Shiu	Synchrony Financial, Chicago, IL
5/12/2017	Zhenhao Zhou	"From Valuing equity-linked death benefits to pricing American options"	Statistics with Emphasis on Actuarial Science	Elias Shiu	Global Atlantic Financial Group, New York City, NY	Ant Financial Service Group, Hangzhou, China
12/16/2016	Congrui Yi	"Penalized Methods and Algorithms for High-dimensional Regression in the Presence of Heterogeneity"	Statistics	Jian Huang	Data Scientist with Expedia, Inc.	Data Scientist with Expedia, Inc.
8/5/2016	Harsimran Somal	"Heterogeneous Computing for the Bayesian HNICAR Model with Incomplete Data"	Statistics	Kate Cowles	Private Consultation	Private Consultation
8/5/2016	Ziqian Zhou	"Statistical Inference of Distributed Delay Differential Equations"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Senior Biostatistician Gilead, San Francisco Bay Area	Senior Biostatistician Gilead, San Francisco Bay Area
5/13/2016	Feiran Jiao	"High-dimensional inference of ordinal data with medical applications"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan	Statistician, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD	Statistician, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD
5/15/2015	Ryne Van Krevelen	"Improved Interval Estimation of Comparative Treatment Effects"	Statistics	Joseph B. Lang	Adjunct Assistant Professor, Elon University, Elon NC	Adjunct Assistant Professor, Elon University, Elon NC
12/19/2014	Xiangmin Zhang	"Nonconvex Selection in Nonparametric Additive Models"	Statistics	Jian Huang	Statistician, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD	Statistician, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, MD
8/8/2014	Hao Chai	"Statistical Inference in High Dimensional and AFT Models"	Statistics	Jian Huang	Postdoctoral Associate at Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT	Postdoctoral Associate at Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT
8/2/2013	Shu-Ching Chang	“Antedependence Models for Skewed Continuous Longitudinal Data”	Statistics	Dale Zimmerman	Postdoc at Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington	Postdoc at Division of Public Health Sciences, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington
8/2/2013	Fan Yang	"Asymptotics for Risk Measures of Extreme Risks”	Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences	Qihe Tang	Assistant Professor in Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada	Assistant Professor in Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
5/17/2013	Bin Li	“Look-back Stopping Times and Their Applications to Liquidation Risk and Exotic Options”	Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences	Qihe Tang, Co-Advisor & Lihe Wang (Co-Advisor, Department of Mathematics)	Assistant Professor in Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada	Assistant Professor in Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada
5/17/2013	Zhongyi Yuan	“Quantitative analysis of extreme risks in insurance and finance”	Statistics	Qihe Tang	Assistant Professor Department of Risk Management, Smeal College of Business	Assistant Professor Department of Risk Management, Smeal College of Business
7/27/2012	Jinzheng Li	"Statistical detection with weak signals via regularization"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
5/11/2012	Xiongwen Tang	"Two-level lognormal frailty model and competing risks model with missing cause of failure"	Statistics	Mike Jones
5/11/2012	Jae Youn Ahn	“Non-parametric inference of risk measures”	Statistics	N.D. Shyamalkumar
7/29/2011	Kun Chen	"Regularized multivariate stochastic regression"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
7/29/2011	Jin (Gordon) Liu	"Penalized methods in genome-wide association studies"	Statistics	Jian Huang
7/29/2011	Yunlong Xie	"Likelihood-based inference for antedependence (markov) models for categorical longitudinal data"	Statistics	Dale Zimmerman
12/16/2011	Fei Su	"Statistical analysis of nonlinear diffusion processes"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan, Elias Shiu
12/17/2010	Tianyang Zhang	"Partly parametic generalized additive model"	Statistics	Kung-Sik Chan
12/18/2009	Dong Liang	"Issues in Bayesian Gaussian Markov Random Field Models With Application to Inter-sensor Calibration"	Statistics	Kate Cowles

The University of Iowa