Jakwang Kim(김자광)

From fall 2025, I am an assistant professor of the School of Data Science of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen. Previously, I was the PIMS Kantotrovich Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow (postdoctoral researcher) at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver mentored by Prof. Young-Heon Kim, Prof. Soumik Pal (UW-Seattle), Prof. Khanh Dao Duc, and Prof. Geoffrey Schiebinger. In May 2023, I received my Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where I was fortunately advised by Prof. Nicolas Garcia Trillos. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, I received a B.A and M.A in Economics from Korea University in Korea.

My current research broadly focuses on the application of optimal transport in statistics, machine learning and computer science. During my graduate study, I researched the adversarial training problem by generalized Wasserstein barycenter perspective. Recently, I am studying free target problem in optimal transport and applying it to statistics and machine learning. 

On the other hand, I am interested in the application of the Schrödinger bridge problem to various problems in statistics and computer science: Ricci curvature in graphs and Föllmer's process over them. Phase transition phenomena in various fields are always of interest to me.

Also, I am interested in spin glass and its application to other fields; in particular random energy model and its variants. 

Contact email : jakwangkim at cuhk.edu.cn