April 28, Research Triangle Park, NC - Jian (Frank) Zou from the University of Connecticut will begin work
as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) beginning in July. NISS is a
non-profit institution created by the statistical professional societies with support from a combination of North
Carolina universities to identify, catalyze and foster high-impact, cross- disciplinary and cross-sector research
involving the statistical sciences.
Zou will work on a research project in biosurveillance to address fundamental issues for statistical
theory and methodology and also implementation issues of algorithms and computational efficiency. The
goal for this project is to enable rapid detection of disease spread through monitoring of readily available
information. The specific aim of this project is to develop rapid and efficient statistically-based computation, to
yield a clear statement of the probability that a particular disease has the potential to become rampant.
Graduating with a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of Connecticut this July, Zou's dissertation
was "Volatility Estimation and Option Pricing." He specializes in high dimensional data analysis. His research
focuses on the dynamics and dependency structure estimation for large data sets, and efficient nonparametric
methods. His research interests also include financial time series (especially high-frequency financial data),
statistical computing, spatial and spatial-temporal modeling, and risk modeling. He received his Master of
Science degree from the University of Connecticut in 2005. He also obtained a M.S. in Computer Science and a
B.S. in Mathematics from Shandong University in China.
Zou worked at General Electric from May - August 2008 as a research analyst. He was working as a
financial analyst at Conning Asset Management in Hartford, CT from August - December 2008.
Zou is a member of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics.
About NISS
The National Institute of Statistical Sciences was established in 1990 by the national statistics societies and the Research Triangle universities and organizations, with the mission to identify, catalyze and foster high-impact, cross-disciplinary and cross-sector research involving the statistical sciences. NISS is dedicated to strengthening and serving the national statistics community, most notably by catalyzing community members' participation in applied research driven by challenges facing government and industry. NISS also provides career development opportunities for statisticians and scientists, especially those in the formative stages of their careers. NISS is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina.
For more information about the NISS, go to www.niss.org.
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