'Big Data' Statistician Joins Department of Mathematical Sciences

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Avishek Chakraborty

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Avishek Chakraborty joins the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematical Sciences as an assistant professor beginning fall 2014. Chakraborty comes to the University of Arkansas from Texas A&M University, where he served as a visiting assistant professor and taught statistical methods.

“Dr. Chakraborty is an active researcher and holds great promise to revitalize the statistics program,” said Chaim Goodman-Strauss, professor of mathematics and chair of the department. “His teaching experience and research record is an example of our intent to recruit and retain the very best faculty.”

Chakraborty’s research interests include Markov chain Monte Carlo-based estimation, efficient computation for large datasets, applications in biology and environment, Bayesian methods and approximate Bayesian computation.

“Bayesian scholars use statistical and probability methods named for an 18th century statistician and philosopher named Thomas Bayes,” said Todd Shields, dean of Fulbright College. “Dr. Chakraborty develops sophisticated statistical models to uncover patterns in extremely large data sets. The breakthroughs in statistical theory he has developed are the tools that applied scholars use in fields popularly known as ‘analytics’ and ‘big data.’ These breakthroughs have applications in fields as diverse as biology, supply chain management, retail merchandising, education and agriculture.”

In 2012, Chakraborty was one of two to receive the Leonard J. Savage Dissertation Award (Applied Methodology) for outstanding doctoral dissertations in Bayesian econometrics and statistics. He also received an Early Career Researcher Grant for attending ninth World Meeting of International Society for Bayesian Analysis in 2008.

“I am excited to be a part of a department that places great emphasis on connecting with its students to help encourage and support their professional growth,” said Chakraborty. “After serving as a postdoctoral fellow and a visiting professor, it is good to be on tenure track at the University of Arkansas.”

Chakraborty holds a Bachelor of Statistics with honors and Master of Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India. He earned a doctorate in statistics from Duke University.