Highlighting Faculty Member Han Du
moattari
Date published: 10/01/18
As questions in social science research become more complex and diverse, statistical methods must evolve to better answer them. My research is centered on developing sophisticated statistical methods for analyzing complex data and facilitating study design.
There is an increasing attention on Bayesian methods in psychological and educational research. I have been developing new Bayesian methods for missing data, meta-analysis, and network data analysis. I believe Bayesian estimation has a promising future and the advantages will be more appreciated in dealing with high dimensional data and complex models. Another line of my research is to develop and evaluate statistical methods for longitudinal data analysis and time series analysis, which is used to study intraindividual change and intraindividual variability, as well as interindividual differences in change and variability. I also work on study design and sample size determination. An appropriate study design yields accurate parameter estimation and sufficient power to detect an effect with scientific significance or practical importance.
My laboratory mainly focuses on developing new statistical models and methods via mathematical derivation or simulations. We use Bayesian estimation and data mining methods to deal with complex data for a variety of models such as structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling. We investigate how to obtain accurate estimates and valid inferences when missingness or drop out is dependent on the unobserved variables by taking approaches of model selection, data augmentation, and Bayesian methods. We also collaborate with researchers from different areas and apply sophisticated statistical methods to promote the development of substantive research.
I was born in China and received a B.A. in Psychology from Beijing Normal University. I moved to the U.S. to pursue my Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame, from which I received a Ph.D. in Quantitative Psychology and an M.S. in Statistics. I joined the UCLA Department of Psychology in 2017.
Categories: Spotlight