A warm welcome to Bien Lab postdoc Oh-Ran Kwon who recently joined CBIOMES.
by Helen Hill for CBIOMES
HH: In summary, what are your research interests?
O-R K: I am a statistician who works on machine learning problems. In particular, I am interested in developing regression and classification methods for analyzing high-dimensional data. I enjoy approaching problems from both theoretical and application perspectives. My goal is to develop methods that researchers can readily apply to a wide range of real-world problems.
HH: What are you going to be working on for CBIOMES?
O-R K: I am excited to develop new statistical methods in collaboration with oceanographers in CBIOMES (so if you have interesting problems that could benefit from a statistical perspective, please reach out to me!). My initial focus will be on developing statistical methods for retrieving bio-optical characteristics of the ocean using remotely-sensed ocean color data. This involves partitioning the ocean based on ocean color and constructing class-specific regression algorithms to estimate bio-optical properties. I will focus on improving clustering and regression techniques for better estimation results.
HH: What is your educational background (BS, MS?)
O-R K: I received my Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Minnesota and my M.S. in Statistics from Seoul National University, South Korea.
Story image: Oh-Ran says she enjoys gazing out at the ocean. “Having relocated from the Midwest to Los Angeles, I’m excited to spend more time at the beach. Apart from that, I have a fondness for sports and outdoor activities like camping, swimming, tennis, and rock climbing.”