We are delighted to welcome Professor Hao Chen of the Department of Statistics as the newest member of GGAM!
Professor Chen earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from Stanford University in 2013 and joined UC Davis the same year. She became a full Professor in 2025 and also serves as Chair of the Graduate Group in Biostatistics.
Her research develops nonparametric methods and theory for moderate- and high-dimensional, network-valued, and other complex data. Two central areas of focus are two-sample testing and change-point analysis, using graph-, rank-, and kernel-based methods. Another major theme is high-dimensional similarity geometry, which informs her work on latent-structure discovery, including community detection, clustering, classification, anomaly detection, and causal design. Her methods have applications in neural recordings, wearable sensing of human movement, biological data, and networked systems.
Professor Chen's honors include an NSF CAREER Award (2019) and a UC Davis Dean's Faculty Fellowship (2021). She has mentored nine Ph.D. students to graduation, three of whom now hold tenure-track faculty positions.
GGAM looks forward to her contributions to the group's research and graduate training.