Principal Investigator

Ray Bai, Assistant Professor of Statistics

PhD in Statistics, University of Florida
MS in Applied Mathematics, University of Massachusetts Amherst
BA in Economics and Government, Cornell University
CV, Google Scholar

PhD Advisees

Current

  • Sijian Fan, PhD candidate in Statistics, 2021-present
    Dissertation title: Statistical Learning for Sparse Matrix Problems

  • Fanghua Chen, PhD candidate in Statistics, 2024-present (co-advising with Ting Fung Ma)
    Dissertation topic: deep learning theory and methods for dependent and complex data

Alumni

  • Zile Zhao, PhD in Statistics (graduated 2025)
    Dissertation title: Methods and Applications for Bayesian Semiparametric Survival Analysis
    First position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Moffitt Cancer Center

  • Shijie Wang, PhD in Statistics (graduated 2024)
    Dissertation title: New Deep Learning Approaches to Classical Statistical Problems
    First position: Applied Scientist, Gauss Labs
    Winner of James D. Lynch Graduate Student Research Award

Undergraduate and Masters Thesis Advisees

Current

  • Leah Wood, BS in Statistics (expected 2025)
    Honors Thesis: Estimating Maternal Mortality in South Carolina from 2018-2023 with Suppressed Data: An Interval-Censored Approach

Other Student Collaborators*

(* I am/was not the primary supervisor of these students)

Current

  • Xin Zhi, PhD candidate in Statistics at the University of South Carolina
    Research project: Bayesian additive regression trees (BART) for survival analysis

  • Liyan Xiong, PhD candidate in Biostatistics at the University of South Carolina
    Research project: statistical methods for computational drug repositioning

  • Dayuan Wang, PhD candidate in Biostatistics at the University of Florida
    Research project: statistical methods for computational drug repositioning

Alumni

  • Qingyang Liu, PhD in Statistics, University of South Carolina (graduated 2023)
    Research project: new approaches to modal regression and Gaussian process regression
    First position: Postdoctoral Fellow in Statistics, Texas A&M University

  • Anja Zgodic, PhD in Biostatistics, University of South Carolina (graduated 2023)
    Research project: scalable Bayesian methodology for high-dimensional regression models
    First position: Research Data Scientist, Lubrizol
    Winner of ENAR Distinguished Student Paper Award

  • Hung-Tien Huang, BS in Computer Science, University of South Carolina (graduated 2023)
    Research project: explainable reinforcement learning with deep learning models
    First position: PhD student in Computer Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Interested in working with me? More information here.