Student Profiles

Katie Baines

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Katie grew up in Northern California. She graduated from California State University, Chico, where she received a bachelor’s degree in statistics. She has now combined her two passions of mathematics and biology in hopes to make a positive difference in the lives of veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries. Katie also finds joy in being a proud dog mom, piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain.

Jin Cao

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Jin grew up in the southern part of China and came to the United States when he was 16. he graduated from Citrus College with an A.S. in Biological Science and an A.A. in Psychology. Also, he completed his bachelor's degree in Quantitive Economics with a minor in Statistics at Cal Poly Pomona. He has always been interested in the biological mechanism of aging and age-related diseases, and he hopes to use statistical methods combined with his knowledge in molecular biology to aid in the research of aging. In his free time, he enjoys weight training and target shooting, he also likes to tinker with computers and automobiles.

Jiarui Chen

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Jiarui Chen grew up in Hangzhou, a city in southeastern China. He graduated from Zhejiang University in China with a B.S. in Biomedical Sciences. He became interested in biostatistics while studying molecular biology and epigenetics. He wants to improve his skills in data analysis, statistical modeling, and hopes to apply mathematical methods to high-throughput studies of diseases. In his spare time, he enjoys photography and music, as well as watching sports.

Kyle Robert Michael Chen

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Kyle is a Socal local, born in and lived most of his life in Orange County. He received a bachelor's degree in Math/Applied Life Science with a concentration in medical and life sciences from UCLA. His interest in biostatistics stems first from his love of math and second from his uncertainty about what to do within the field. He has a desire to work in cancer related research and help find ways to make a difference for people in all walks of life who are affected by it. Outside of school he enjoys playing many sports (mainly volleyball), watching those same sports, and just exploring new and exciting past times.

Yuhang Chen

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Yuhang comes from the south part of China. He earned his bachelor's degree in biology at the University of Miami. He developed his interest in biostatistics while doing internships in biotechnology companies and his undergraduate research program about plant growth under different micro environments. He believes that answer hides between datas. That's why he decided to pursue his graduate studies on biostatistics at UC San Diego.

Keren Hu

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Keren was born and raised in southern China, where people are very good at eating spicy food. She received her bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from Central South University and master’s degree in the same major from University of Southern California. During her undergraduate senior project, she learned how to use correlation analysis to analyze data from her advisor. After Covid pandemic, she went to summer school and took biostatistics-related courses during graduate studies. All of these experiences led her to choose to change her major to biostatistics. In her spare time, she likes cooking, watching anime and traveling.

Yuyao Huang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Yuyao was born in southern China. She graduated from Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Statistics. In her Final Year Project, she witnessed the art of utilizing mathematical models to analyze biomedical data. At UCSD, she expects to learn application-focused, public health-centered skills to contribute to addressing health issues. In her spare time, she loves traveling and doing sports.

Eva Jason

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Eva was born in Los Angeles and went to college at UC Santa Cruz where she majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. As an undergraduate research assistant, she found a passion for coding while trying to make sense of the large amounts of data produced from a laboratory assay. Since college, Eva has worked in several different research environments. She was an intern at Osaka University in a biochemistry lab, a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, and a bioinformatics associate at a biotechnology company in the San Diego area. Through her experiences, Eva realized her desire to immerse herself more deeply in statistics. She is interested in applying her coding and biology knowledge to develop methods for personalized medicine. When not writing code and making plots, Eva enjoys preparing complex and time-consuming meals, tending to her garden, and reading science fiction novels.

Kate Ellen Johnson

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Kate grew up in Northern California and received her B.S in Statistics from the University of California, Davis. During her studies, she took undergraduate coursework in quantitative biology and bioinformatics, and was involved in vector genetic research, which furthered her particular interest in biostatistics. Kate is excited to join UCSD to explore their passion for research in statistical genetics and infectious disease epidemiology. In her free time, Kate enjoys climbing, being outdoors, watching true crime documentaries, and crocheting.

Nicole Kimberly Kam

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Nicole grew up in Hong Kong. She earned her B.S. in pharmaceutical chemistry from the University of California, Davis. To work towards meeting her career objectives, she had made targeted endeavors. She followed a research team called “QuonBio” and helped conduct research on genomic variance calling, focusing on comparing genetic mosaicism between brains of healthy and individuals with cognitive impairment. Furthermore, she realized the importance of public health ever since the outbreak of COVID-19. Therefore, she intends to address pressing challenges facing public health and to strengthen preventative health strategies using quantitative analysis and evidence-based research studies through continuing her studies at UCSD. In her free time, she enjoys watching movies and shows, listening to podcasts, and building and learning about custom keyboards.

Tannavee Kumar

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Tannavee (pronounced Thun-vee) grew up in Northern California and completed her bachelor's degree in Genetics and Genomics with a minor in Computer Science from the University of California, Davis. Upon graduation, she spent a couple years working at an oncology based precision medicine startup on the data science team conducting biostatistical analysis. She has always been interested in utilizing a multidisciplinary approach to cancer research, and aims to develop and use statistical methods for real world biomedical data. Other intersecting domains that are also of interest to her include, women's health, health economics and outcomes research, and more diversity in patient data. In her free time, she enjoys cycling, going on hikes, and trying out new recipes.

Kevin Yukang Li

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Kevin was raised in San Jose, California, and graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a B.S. in Biochemistry-Molecular Biology. Before coming to San Diego, he researched into topics like gene expression in mouse models, which introduced him to the endless capabilities of statistics in scientific research. In his free time, Kevin enjoys hiking, writing about music, and watching sports

Zhiyi Lu

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Zhiyi comes from Nanjing, a city in East China. She got her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics at Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology. Because of her interest and passion for statistics and biology, she wanted to explore more in the field of biostatistics. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her golden British shorthair cat.

Jomel Meeko Manzano

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Jomel Meeko (yes his first name has two parts) grew up in the Philippines and moved to New York City when he was in elementary school. He graduated with a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and Statistics from Cal Poly Pomona. He did his absolute best to avoid the medical field because he hates needles and blood, but he was always good at math and wanted a career that involves helping people. This is where he was introduced to the field of biostatistics by one of his professors during his undergraduate. In his free time, Jomel Meeko enjoys going to the gym, singing, playing guitar, and reading about dinosaurs.

Zhanner Mou

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

I grew up in Taizhou, a city in east China. I received my bachelor’s degree in Statistics from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, shenzhen. My undergraduate research focused on studying the generating process of events with irregular timestamps by developing machine learning methodologies that combine reinforcement learning, time series analysis, and point processes. In my spare time, I love exploring new places with friends, going to the gym, and baking.

Siyuan Ping

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Siyuan was borned and raised in Shanghai, a city in the Eastern China. She completed her bachelor‘s degree in Computer Science at the Shanghai Normal University. During the covid-19 pandemic, she developed an interest in Biostatistics through mathematical modeling competition, using various models like black boxes to do data analysis and explore the pathogenic factors in disease treatment is very attractive. During her master’s degree, she will continue finding the research direction she really hopes to do. In her free time, she enjoys painting, playing the clarinet and piano, swimming and dancing.

Hongjie (Harry) Qian

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

I am born and raised in Eastern China and just graduated from the joint bachelor's program of Biochemistry & Pharmacology between the China Pharmaceutical University in Nanjing and the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow in Scotland. Based on my previous research experiences, I am keen on combining statistical modeling with healthcare-related areas, such as clinical research and drug/therapy outcomes. I usually edit Wikipedia and watch sports or TV shows during my free time.

Weiwei Shi

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Hello, I’m Weiwei Shi. I’m from China. I received a bachelor’s degree in Public Health in California Baptist University. In the future, I hope to conduct research in public health, utilizing analytical and statistical knowledge to develop more accurate medical analysis models to promote the advancement of public health. I enjoy hiking, working out, hangout with friends, and playing tennis in my spare time.

Lingsong Tian

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Lingsong comes from Southwest China. He got his bachelor's degree in civil engineering at Chang'an University. He studied data science at the University of California, Irvine for one year as an exchange student. He is very interested in the clinical research of liver diseases and wants to engage in related work in the future. He likes all kinds of animals, loves to get along with animals, especially reptiles, such as bearded dragons, geckos.

Shengjia Tu

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Shengjia was born and grew up in China. He received his B.S degree from Tongji University in Environmental Science. As he learned more about details in research, he realized the importance of biostatistics and a deep understanding of study designs and statistical models and their applications to environmental, biomedical and psychosocial research. After auditing some advanced courses of biostatistics, he decided to have professional training in Biostatistics. In his spare time, he likes swimming and traveling.

Haoze Wang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Haoze was born and grew up in the southern part of China. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz, and received his bachelor’s degree in Economics / Mathematics. His undergraduate life was severely affected by the epidemic, he hopes to explore the field of public health, and make a difference when the epidemic comes. In his free time, he enjoys video games.

Henry Wong

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Henry was born and raised in Southern California. He completed his bachelor's degree
in probability and statistics at the University of California, San Diego. During his
undergraduate years, Henry developed an interest in global public health and
waterborne infectious diseases. He hopes to use mathematics to study infectious
diseases and learn how they impact communities. In his free time, Henry likes to enjoy
freshly baked donuts and go hiking.

Mengxue Xia

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Mengxue comes from Sichuan, which is known for pandas (sooo cute!) and hot pot. She earned her bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering and Technology at Hainan University. She developed her interest in biostatistics when she worked in the pharmaceutical industry as a lab researcher. She hopes her interdisciplinary experience in chemistry and drug discovery will enable her to generate unique insights in the field of biostatistics. In her spare time, she enjoys playing tennis, editing videos, and traveling.

Yijia Xue

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Yijia was born in eastern China. She got her bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics at UCSD. With her interest and passion in biostatistics, she hopes to make a difference in this area. In her free time, she likes traveling and doing different sports.

Bowei Zhang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Bowei is from Nanjing, a city in the East China region. He graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He developed his interest in biostatistics during the summer before his senior year when he worked on a project comparing and selecting different statistical models to forecast trends of Syphilis and Gonorrhea in China. He is interested in Epidemiology research and hopes to learn more about statistical modeling through his time at UCSD. In his spare time, Bowei enjoys watching movies and TV shows.

Jennifer Zhang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Jennifer grew up in Southern California. She graduated from UC San Diego in 2021, where she received her Bachelor’s degree in General Biology. Jennifer’s interest in biostatistics developed from undergraduate coursework in statistics and bioinformatics. She became drawn to biostatistics because she was fascinated by the universality of mathematics and data analysis, and the role it played in solving public health issues, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jennifer hopes to eventually go into infectious disease epidemiology and apply mathematical approaches to devise solutions for the control and prevention of infectious diseases. In her spare time, Jennifer likes to work out, go to the beach, and explore new places.

Zhichao Zhang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Zhichao grew up in Shandong, China. He graduated from Xi 'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University with a bachelor's degree in bioinformatics. Zhichao is interested in Bayesian statistics, which he thinks is the most beautiful statistical method in the world. He has experience managing drug batch data at beigene. He wants to go into the analysis of psychology-related diseases and dreams of becoming a biostatistician. In his daily life, zhichao enjoys playing with cats, watching movies and driving around.

Rongzhe Zhao

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Rongzhe (Rob) grew up in North China-Beijing. He came to America when he was 15. He got his bachelor degree in UCSD. And he is very thrilled that he can continue his master in UCSD. He hasn’t decided what field he wants to focus on academically. He will be very looking forward to find one. During his free time, he likes to work out and all other sports.

Daniel Zoleikhaeian

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Daniel graduated with a B.S. in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental
Biology from the University of California at Los Angeles. At UCSD,
he is excited to further explore his interests in data science and
biomedical research. In his free time, Daniel enjoys trail running, gymming, playing
piano, and exploring new places.

Yiwen Chen

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Yiwen comes from China. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA with a major in Statistics and a minor in Bioinformatics. After that, she earned her Master of Science degree from the Biostatistics department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her recent project is to develop a tree-based statistical method for high-dimensional microbiome data. In her spare time, she enjoys playing the guitar, playing tennis, and eating good food with family and friends.

Yuwei Cheng

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2020

Yuwei comes from Xi’an, a city in the Northwest China. Before pursuing a Ph.D. in Biostatistics at UCSD, she graduated from College of the Holy Cross with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics. In the College's Summer Research Program and her Honors thesis, she explored the complex genetic underpinnings of adverse metabolic and disease severity outcomes in schizophrenia using Bayesian SEM and machine learning including tree-based and regularized regression methods. Yuwei appreciates studying and living in different places. After spending her junior year at the University of Oxford as a visiting student, she worked under the direction of Dr. Musie Ghebremichael at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. She is interested in pursuing methodological research motivated by applications in infectious diseases and mental health. In her spare time, she cooks and plays piano. She loves swimming as much as enjoying good food!

Michael Cheung

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2019

Michael Cheung graduated from Occidental College with a bachelor’s in mathematics. Prior to graduating, he worked at the Institute for Social Research at California State University, Sacramento as a student social researcher and intern. During his senior year at Occidental, Michael participated in the Student Independent Research Internship (SIRI) program at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. His experience at JPL led him to work as a software engineer at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas for two years before ultimately returning to California to pursue a PhD in biostatistics at UCSD. In his spare time, Michael likes to play guitar and talk all things soccer, particularly Chelsea F.C. 

Jasmin Duehring

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Jasmin is a dual German-Canadian citizen and has been residing in Southern California since 2018. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada and her master’s degree in Statistics at California State University, Fullerton. Prior to pursuing her PhD she competed for the Canadian national cycling team and also spent three years teaching high school math. She is interested in causal inference in epidemiological studies, specifically in the area of maternal, fetal, and perinatal health. In her spare time she loves to be with her family, including her son and Airedale terrier. She also loves backpacking in California’s beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains.

Margaret Elliot

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Maggie grew up in Ohio and attended the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. She graduated with a Bachelor's of Science in Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, with a Biology concentration and a French minor. At Notre Dame, she assisted with infectious disease modeling research, and developed an interest in intervention trials. She also participated in the 2021 Biomedical Data Science Summer Research Opportunity Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research interests include clinical trial design and analysis and Bayesian nonparametrics, and she is looking forward to learning about other areas of biostatistical research at UCSD. Besides research, she enjoys spending time in nature, pilates, sewing, going to farmers' markets, and exploring new places - especially with friends and family!

Chenyu Liu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2019

Chenyu comes from the northern part of China. Prior to beginning her PhD program at UC San Diego, she received her master of science degree in statistics at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.  Her recent work applied ADMM algorithm and Huber loss to solve convex clustering under data contamination. Chenyu is also interested in high dimensional data analysis and developing statistical methods. In her free time, Chenyu loves watching movies and listening to music.

Renie (Yunyi) Liu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Renie loves scientific research and hopes to do science with an eye open for possible applications. She was born and raised in Wuxi, a city in southeastern China. She gained great interest in biostatistics while pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Before starting her PhD journey at UCSD, she graduated from Yale University with an MS in Biostatistics. Her research interests mainly lie in the areas of clinical trial design, longitudinal analysis and causal inference. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and photography.

Man Luo

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2021

Man comes from China. She received her bachelor’s degree in Statistics from Sichuan University. Before joining UCSD, she graduated with a master’s degree in Biostatistics from Columbia University conducting research on missing data, Bayesian statistics and functional analysis. In her free time, she likes watching animation, dancing, and hiking.

Wenjing Meng

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Wenjing comes from China. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in UCSD with a double major in Statistics and Management Science. After that, she received her MS degree in Biostatistics from Yale University. Her research interests lie in applications of statistical methods on clinical trials, and causal inference methods in observational studies. Besides research, she likes anime, video games, and K-pop.

Jasmine Morales

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2021

Jasmine comes from North Hollywood, California. She graduated with her Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and minor in Statistics from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. Her career goal is to obtain her PhD and ultimately become a professor. Jasmine’s research interests lie in, but are not limited to, the study of health problems that are specifically dominant in low-income communities and neighborhoods exposed to issues such as food insecurity, housing instability, and educational impediments. In her free time, Jasmine enjoys traveling, hiking, dancing, weight lifting, and baking.

Fang Nan

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2023

Fang was born in China, where he completed his undergraduate studies and earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Washington for his master's studies. During his time there, Fang’s research encompassed a range of statistical methodologies, spanning parametric and non-parametric statistics, high-dimensional statistics, and Bayesian shrinkage estimates. His master's thesis delved into the realm of innovative compositional data analysis approaches and their practical applications to physical activity epidemiology. Concurrently, he worked as a research assistant at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center for a period of time. He was also the recipient of the 2023 University of Washington School of Public Health Outstanding Master’s Students in Biostatistics Award. In his leisure time, he enjoys cooking, traveling, and running.

Christian Pascual

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2020

Christian is a NorCal native who's finally decided to explore the other half of California. He went to UC Davis for a BS in Biomedical Engineering and Columbia University for an MS in Biostatistics. He is interested in the exploring the use of wearables to biostatistical research. Outside of the classroom, he enjoys learning new board games, staring at difficult puzzles and standing on the soccer field as a goalkeeper. 

Yuchen Qi

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2021

Yuchen grew up in eastern China and graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics. Prior to beginning the PhD program at UCSD, she attended Columbia University and obtained her master’s degree in Biostatistics. Her recent research projects focus on Bayesian methods and infectious diseases. In her spare time, Yuchen enjoys movies, musicals, and love walking in the woods. 

Jiyue Qin

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Jiyue comes from Nantong, a city in southeastern China. She received her bachelor's degree in Bioscience from Huazhong University of Science and Technology and master's degree in Biostatistics from Columbia University. She then worked at Albert Einstein College of Medicine for two years as a statistician, primarily working on Einstein Aging Study, a prospective cohort study that leverages ambulatory assessments via smartphones and wearable devices. Her interests are given away by her YouTube recommendation page, which is about food, movies and TV shows most of the time. She loves walking and a stroll along the beach at sunset has been her favorite since she moved to the beautiful city of San Diego.

Natalie Quach

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2022

Natalie was born and raised in San Diego, California. She graduated with Latin honors from UCSD in 2022, receiving a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics. Previously, she participated in the Big Data Summer Institute, a Summer Institute in Biostatistics program, at the University of Michigan where she conducted statistical analysis on electronic health record data. Prior to graduating, she worked with Professor Xin Tu at UCSD conducting statistical analysis for various biomedical and psychosocial projects and assisting with developing statistical methods. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, such as trying new food and playing board games. She also enjoys cycling on her stationary bike and watching movies.

Howon Ryu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2021

Howon was born and raised in the suburbs of Seoul, South Korea where she liked to visit museums, ski and hike every winter and spring growing up. She finished her bachelor's in Statistics and Philosophy at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, and joined UCLA for a Master's in Biostatistics with deep interest in solving real world health problems using statistical methods. Her primary biostatistical interest lies in topics including mixed effects PKPD models, clinical trials, and biomedical imaging. In her spare time, Howon enjoys hot yoga, board game nights with friends and family, and trying new recipes at home.

Anubhav Singh Sachan

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2018

Anubhav is fascinated by how the analysis of data can shed light on complex phenomena and play an important role in scientific discoveries. He grew up in Mexico City and attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico where he obtained a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics and Computing. After working for over a year as a statistician at a market research company, he decided to return to academia and pursue a master's degree in Statistics at Imperial College London. Whilst there, he spent some months researching Bayesian non-parametric methods that could be used on single-cell sequencing gene expression data to detect dependence between genes. Currently, Anubhav's main interests are Bayesian Analysis, Statistical Genetics and Predictive Modelling. He also enjoys travelling and watching documentaries about prehistoric wildlife.

Lucy Shao

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2021

Lucy grew up in Nanjing, a city in the southern part of China. Lucy graduated from UCLA with a bachelor's in mathematics and then worked on her master's degree in Statistics at UCSD. After graduating, she worked as a data scientist at SDSU for two years, and has returned to UCSD to pursue a Ph.D. in biostatistics. While working as a data scientist, Lucy worked on some projects on causal inference, optimization, and machine learning methods. She is passionate about Bayesian Statistics, causal inference, and high-dimensional data, etc. Her ultimate goal is to explore statistics for the public good. Lucy loves photography, traveling, and scuba diving in her spare time. 

Anya Umlauf

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2016

Anya has graduated from the San Diego State University with a bachelor's degree in Mathematics and a master's in Statistics. Currently a senior statistician for the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program (HNRP) at the University of California, San Diego, she collaborates with US and international researchers on studying genetic, neurovirologic, neuromedical, neurobehavioral, and neuroimaging data. The complete list of published scientific manuscripts that Anya contributed to can be found here.

In addition, Ms. Umlauf has been teaching statistics since 2007. Most recently, she is a lecturer for Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) Programs in Clinical Research (CREST) and Leadership in Healthcare Organizations (LHCO), UCSD. In her free time Anya enjoys spending time with family and friends. She loves photography, being outdoors, traveling, dancing, and eating good food.

Xinran Wang

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2020

Xinran grew up in northern China. She received her bachelor’s degrees in Probability & Statistics and Economics from UC San Diego. Prior to graduating, she worked with Professor Satchidananda Panda at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies for two years, conducting statistical analysis on human circadian data and detecting the metabolic benefits of Time-Restricted Eating. This fascinating experience sparked her passion for investigating further in the areas of causal inference, longitudinal data analysis, and electronic health records. Besides research, she loves photography, watching musicals and movies, and traveling in her free time.

Morris (Tsung-Chin) Wu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2020

Morris has graduated from UCSD with a Master’s degree in statistics. In the meanwhile, he worked at Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging in UCSD as a Graduate Student Researcher. He obtained both Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture and Landscape Architecture at National Taiwan University. Morris has a strong interest in modern statistical applications for mental health data, and has applied many statistical methods for longitudinal data analysis, causal inference, and machine learning. In his spare time, he likes playing table tennis, watching movies, and traveling.

Courtney Barbato

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Born and raised in northern California, Courtney recently finished her undergraduate degree at San Diego State University. By pursuing her master's in biostatistics, she hopes to combine her passions of helping people and statistics in order to make a difference in the world of oncology or pharmaceuticals. In her spare time, she likes to go to the beach, paint, and spend time with loved ones.

Fangyi Cao

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Winter 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Fangyi comes from northeast China. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of Macau and was an exchange student at the University of Hong Kong and NTU (Singapore) respectively for a year. She is interested in using mathematics to explore the unknown, especially, research related to disease and pharmacy. In her spare time, she likes painting and photography, and skiing each winter vacation.

Brian Dang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Brian is from Southern California and graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. After graduating, he has worked on research projects on characterizing age-related macular degeneration. In his free time, he enjoys watching sports and spending time with friends.

Ziyi Ding

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Ziyi comes from the northern part of China. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Statistics from Central South University. She has always been curious about new things and enjoys participating in projects in different fields. In her free time, she likes playing badminton, swimming, traveling and photography.

Devin Gregoire

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Devin grew up in the town of Chico in Northern California. He graduated from California State University, Chico, where he attained his bachelor’s in Cellular and Molecular Biology. He has always been interested in the field of statistics, and is particularly interested in researching Alzheimer’s Disease. In his free time, Devin loves watching baseball and being outside doing activities such as hiking, running, or biking.

Xinyi Huang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Xinyi grew up in southern China, came to San Diego in 2017, and thinks it is the best place to live after having been here for 4 years. She graduated from UC San Diego with a BS degree in Probability and Statistics. Xinyi is interested in high dimensional statistics and machine learning techniques and has experience assisting in data analysis with Amazon's customer service project. She wants to engage in the design and analysis of clinical trials and dreams of becoming a biostatistician in the future. In her daily life, Xinyi loves long-distance running, cooking for others, birdwatching, and playing the erhu.

Yi Le

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Yi Le was born in China and moved to Sweden when she was 13 years old. She received her bachelor's degree in Biotechnology at Chalmers University of Technology. Her bachelor's thesis was about enriching annotation parameters in GEMs (genome-scale metabolic models) and creating a compact and concise visualization of the information. In her spare time, she enjoys dancing, watching movies, and traveling.

Luer Li

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Luer comes from southern China. She got her B.S. in mathematics at University of California, Irvine. After the outbreak of COVID-19, she realized statistics are critical not only to marketing sales but also to the integrity of scientific research and decided to continue her studies at UCSD. She spends most of her free time with her British shorthair cat.

Zhengxu Liao

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Zhengxu is an interesting person coming from Shenzhen, southern China. He received his bachelor's degree of science in Statistics at Sun Yat-Sen University in China. His interest in biostatistics arose when he analyzed transcriptomic data on The Cancer Genome Atlas. Additionally, he also has interests in optimization problem and theoretical research. In his spare time, he likes playing games and doing physical exercises.

Ethan Mai

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Ethan was born and raised in San Jose, California. He earned his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His interest in Biostatistics developed from graduate coursework in biotechnology. Related projects include analyzing genomic, proteomic, and metabolomic data for the identification of an unknown microbe. In his free time, he enjoys long-distance running as well as watching movies and shows (especially Star Wars).

Ryo Mayes

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Ryo grew up in Northern California. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in cognitive science. After graduating, he accepted a basketball analytics internship offer with the Sacramento Kings, where he had the opportunity to work with several statistics researchers on interesting NBA analytics projects and lead him to a position as a Marketing Analyst at Prosper Marketplace in San Francisco. In his spare time, Ryo likes to go backpacking, work on a variety of random computer science-related projects, watch and play basketball and tennis, and eat great food with friends. 

Benjamin Pham

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Benjamin Pham graduated from UCSD with a bachelor's degree in Bioengineering: Biotechnology. As an undergraduate student, he has worked on various genomic research projects relating to Autism Spectrum Disorder, prostate cancer, and head/neck cancer. He hopes to learn more about statistical methodology through the UCSD Biostatistics Masters program to further understand experimental design and data used in biological research. In his free time, Benjamin enjoys traveling and tinkering with computers.  

Scott Rappoport

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2019
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Scott Rappoport is a Senior Software/Release Engineer at Humana’s Digital Health and Analytics (DH&A) division, specializing in database technology. He received a BS in Biochemistry from FSU and a MS in Chemical Engineering from CU-Boulder. He also holds professional certifications as an Oracle Certified Professional DBA and Developer, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, and has also completed HL7 RIM and CDA Specializations. He was also an instructor of Database Technology at UCSD-Extension from 2001 – 2017. His interests include using data mining techniques to characterize large datasets, and looks to integrate genetic data with clinical records and to analyze feature rich datasets across large cohorts quickly. He has lived in La Jolla with his wife and children since 1998.

Ravi Sharma

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Winter 2022

Ravi is a 2022 graduate of our Master of Science program. Ravi is currently enrolled in medical school at Midwestern University in Downer's Grove, Illinois. 

Prior to beginning our Master of Science program, Ravi received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from University of California, Berkeley. 

Benjamin Shifflet

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Spring: 2023

Ben grew up in Southern California near Los Angeles and received his bachelor's degree in Physics - Biophysics from UCSD. For the past few years, Ben has been working as a data analyst for the Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at UCSD. Through his work, he was introduced to the field of biostatistics and has been able to contribute to many different Alzheimer's and dementia related research projects. Outside of school and work, he enjoys hiking, going to concerts, and traveling.

Khang Tong

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Khang is a San Diego local and received his bachelor's degree in applied mathematics at UCSD. He is drawn towards the creativity inherent in math and its potential to help advance emerging fields in human health and frame the way we understand results. In his free time, he enjoys playing classical guitar, learning new languages, and recreating in the outdoors.

Tianna Truby

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Tianna was born and raised in California and graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a B.S. in Mathematical Sciences and a minor in Statistical Sciences. During her training, she aims to further her statistics knowledge and delve into the Public Health field. Fun fact - Tianna is fluent in Japanese.

Yingja Wei

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Yingjia was born in the southeast part of China, which has an awesome climate all year round. She received her bachelor’s degree from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a major in Animal Science. During her undergraduate phase, she participated in several research projects about statistical genomics and animal breeding. The experience of volunteering as a teacher in southwest China for a month and investigating the health service condition there stimulated her interest in health promotion, so she transferred to Biostatistics. She likes swimming, baking and sharing dessert with her friends.

Naomi Wilcox

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Naomi graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in Public Health and French, followed by an MPH in Epidemiology. She has worked or studied public health in India, Thailand, Brazil, and France. Most recently, she worked as a Statistician in a laboratory that studies respiratory pathogens at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Her interests lie at the intersection of randomized clinical trials analysis, global health, and infectious diseases. In her free time, she enjoys running, podcasts, and anything outdoorsy.

Kun Yang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2021
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Kun comes from east China. He received a Bachelor's degree in Bioengineering at the Huazhong Agricultural University in China. After that, he studied Bioinformatics at the Huazhong Agricultural University, mainly focusing on machine learning methods. He developed his interest in Biostatistics as well when working on his projects and is interested in longitudinal data and data missing problems. He has been working on several projects as a visiting student at UCSD. Kun enjoys video games, music, and cooking in his free time.

Jasen Zhang

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Jasen grew up in Central New Jersey (yes that exists) with his two younger brothers. He earned his B.S. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Johns Hopkins University while also engaging in biostatistical coursework and research. His undergraduate research analyzed ICU data to assist physicians in making more data-informed clinical decisions. His interests include clinical trials and statistical genomics to assist in the next generation of personalized medicines. Jasen enjoys folding origami, playing board games, and the outdoors. 

Alexander Zhu

• Degree Program: MS
• Entry Term: Fall 2020
• Graduation Term: Spring 2022

Alexander grew up in Lanzhou, northern China, where he enjoys awesome beef noodle soup. He finished his bachelor's degree in chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University and Hong Kong Polytechnic University.  Previously, he was a graduate student in Biochemistry program at UCSD, where he had some experience on epigenomic analysis and became interested in biostatistics. In his spare time, Alexander likes hiking and playing card games. 

Ruifeng Chen

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2017

Ruohi (Matt) Chen

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2018
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Life is a journey full of adventures and Matt always want to explore more! Before pursuing the PhD at UCSD, he studied biostatistics at University of Pennsylvania. Matt did his master thesis "Kidney Allograft Offers: Predictors of Turndown and the Impact of Late Organ Acceptance on Allograft Survival" under the instructions of Prof. Justine Shults and Dr. Jordana Cohen. Besides that, he also collaborated with Prof. Pam Shaw in area of longitudinal data analysis, and with Prof. Li Mingyao in area of gene therapy. His research interests are mainly in the area of longitudinal data analysis, survival analysis and causal inference, but he would also love to explore more in some other areas, such as high dimensional data analysis, and developing advance statistical methods.  In his spare time, he is a big fan of basketball, and loves traveling.

Kristen Hansen

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2017
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Tuo Lin

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2018
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Tuo comes from southern part of China. He came to the U.S. to pursue his bachelor degree at age 18, and his first destination was UCSD. He obtained both Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and bachelor of art degree in Economics in UCSD. After that, he obtained his Master’s degree in statistics in UCSD. During his Master’s, he worked at ACTRI in UCSD as a Graduate Student Researcher for one year. He has also co-authored in several papers applying semiparametric models, especially the ones using semiparametric GEE analysis in longitudinal data. His research interests lie in longitudinal analysis, semiparametric models and causal inference. In his spare time, he likes playing basketball, singing and swimming.

Wenyi Lin

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2017

Wenyi Lin is from China. Prior to beginning her PhD program in UCSD, she received her master of science in Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University. She also received her bachelor of science in Information and Computing Science at Zhejiang University in China. She applied latent variable models on Nepal infant’s respiratory infection data for her master thesis. Her research interests lie in latent variable analysis, time series and image analysis. Wenyi enjoy playing chess in her free time.

Jinyuan Liu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2017

Charles (Jiyu) Luo

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2019
• Graduation Term: Summer 2023

Charles was born in southern China and spent most of his youth in Beijing. He enjoys exploring different cultures and that mindset drove him to study abroad after high school. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a major in Mathematics. After that, he received his MS degree in statistics from the University of Pennsylvania. In the last few years, he worked on various biostatistics projects at the school of medicine as well as during internship. His work primarily focuses on modeling and inference of high dimensional problems in meta-genomics while he also has strong interest in Bayesian models of clinical trials with multiple endpoints. In his spare time, he enjoys reading books, watching NBA basketball and trading.

Junting Ren

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2019
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023

Junting likes challenges and makes every effort to solve real-world health problem that could save lives. He conducted several cancer-epidemiology projects while pursuing his medical degree at Sun Yat-sen University in China. Before coming to UCSD, he graduated with a master’s degree in Biostatistics from Columbia University, where he did a variety of research that covers statistical methods from high dimensional data to time-series analysis. Besides research, Junting loves to play basketball, guitar and do photography. Life is like an ice-cream enjoy it before it melts!

Tyler Vu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2018

Tyler was born and raised in Orange County, California where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics at California State University, Fullerton. Previously, he was a data analyst intern at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project. Tyler developed his interest in biostatistics by participating in the 2017 Summer Program in Biostatistics and Computational Biology at Harvard University where he worked with Dr. Sherri Rose. In 2018, he spent an additional summer working with the biostatistics department at Harvard University working with Dr. Victor De Gruttola. At CSUF, he participated in research projects related to environmental statistics, feature level fusion and financial mathematics. In his free time, he enjoys watching TV shows, NFL football and NBA basketball.

Yiran Zhang

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2018

Yiran is an outgoing girl come from China.  She received her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics at South China University of Technology and obtained her master’s degree in biostatistics at Emory University. She worked at the transplant center at Emory University’s School of Medicine which inspired her passion to combine statistical methods and human health, especially in the area of women’s health. Her recent work uses a variable selection model for censored data to validate and improve the staging system for breast cancer.  She is also interested in high dimensional data analysis, optimization problem and survival analysis. In her free time she likes to practice yoga and singing.

Brian Kwan

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2016
• Graduation Term: Spring 2021

Brian is a 2021 graduate of our doctoral program, writing his thesis entitled Metabolomic Markers and Functional Data Methods for Characterizing and Predicting Diabetic Kidney Disease Progression under the advisement of Dr. Loki Natarajan. Upon graduation, Brian accepted a postdoctoral scholar position in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Brian previously received his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at University of California, Irvine. 

Yuqi Qiu

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2016
• Graduation Term: Spring 2021

Yuqi is a 2021 graduate of our doctoral program, writing his thesis entitled Doubly Robust Imputation for Longitudinal Data with Monotone Dropouts: Applications in Alzheimer’s Randomized Trials under the advisement of Dr. Karen Messer.  Upon graduation, Yuqi accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Division of Biostatistics / Department of Statistics, with East China Normal University, Shanghai. 

Prior to beginning our doctoral program, Yuqi received his Bachelor of Science degree in International Economics and Trade from Beijing Normal University and his Master of Science degree in Biostatistics at Case Western Reserve University. 

Serene (Lingjing) Jian

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2017
• Graduation Term: Fall 2020

Serene is the first graduate of the Biostatistics doctoral program, receiving her PhD in 2020. She wrote her thesis, Statistical Methods for Longitudinal Data Analysis and Reproducible Feature Selection in Human Microbiome Studies under the advisement of Drs. Wesley Thompson and Rob Knight. Upon graduation, Serene accepted a biostatistician position with Janssen Pharmaceuticals.

Serene previously received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Translation from Chinese University of Hong Kong, and her Master of Science degree in Statistics from University of California, San Diego.

Yu Zhao

• Degree Program: PhD
• Entry Term: Fall 2019
• Graduation Term: Spring 2023