J.T.Gene Hwang
(formerly Jiunn Tzon Hwang)
Professor

Department of Mathematics
Malott Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14850

Tel:         (607)255-3443 (O)
Fax:        (607)255-7149
hwang@math.cornell.edu

 
Description of Research Interests

Stein's phenomenon is one of the most striking phenomena in modern statistics. For about a decade, since 1979, I worked on shrinkage estimation, especially in relation to Stein's phenomenon from the point of view of decision theory and confidence interval construction. Starting from around 1990, my research has focused on construction of confidence intervals and prediction intervals for various types of problems: estimation of ratio parameters in regression, measurement error models, bioequivalence problems, estimation of order restricted parameters and prediction based on a factor analysis model (HELP). Statistical intervals, such as confidence intervals, prediction intervals and tolerance intervals, are of major importance in statistics. By providing intervals, statisticians demonstrate the possible range of parameters of interest or future observations.

Much of my recent research is stimulated by scientific and engineering applications. Although my primary interest is in theory, the solutions often can be used directly in applications. My recent joint work with the National Institute of Standards and Technology is one example.

More recently, I have begun to work on research even more directly related to scientific problems themselves. Examples include:

(i) identification of quantitative trait loci (QTL) which are the genes that affect the quantitative characteristics of plants or animals;

(ii) the developing of statistical techniques that will remove the shadow effect of images (of, e.g., ice floes in the North Pole taken from satellites) and binarize the pictures.