Education

• PhD in Mathematics, University of Illinois Chicago (In Progress)

• MS in Applied Statistics, California State University, Long Beach

• BS in Economics & BA in Mathematics, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Research Interests

• Variable and Model Selection 

• Survival, Longitudinal, and Time Series Data 

• Biomedical Applications

Publications 

1. Tran, D.B., Goto, M., Coward, L.U., Kong, D., Goman, G.S., Wang, J., Christov, K., Green, A., Das Gupta, T.K., and Yamada, T. (2026). Near-infrared Fluorescence-guided Imaging Intraoperatively Distinguishes Metastatic and Benign Lymph Nodes in Breast Cancer Animal Models. Submitted. Supported by three grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). 

2. Kim, S., Krinik, S., and Kong, D. (2026). Cointegration Analysis of Ambient Ozone on Respiratory Disease Prevalence in Southern California. Journal of Applied Statistics: Environmental Statistics and Data Science. 2(1). 1-15. 

3. Kim, S. and Kong, D. (2024).  Forecasting Comparison between Dynamic Regression Model and Recurrent Neural Networks with Keras and Analysis of Dropout Regularization Effects. Manuscript. 

Research Experience and Selected Projects 

• Dependence-Based Variable Selection via Weighted Binary Expansions (Dissertation), with Dr. Zhong and Dr. Wang, Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago, Fall 2026 - Present

• Joint Interaction Selection in a Partially Linear Semiparametric Model (Dissertation), with Dr. Wang, Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago, Spring 2026 - Fall 2026 (expected)

• Breast Cancer Lymph Node Metastasis Detection via Fluorescence Imaging, in collaboration with Dr. Yamada, Department of Surgery, University of Illinois Chicago, Fall 2025 - Spring 2026

• Validation of a Cointegration Analysis of Ambient Ozone and Respiratory Disease Prevalence in Southern California, based on an M.S. thesis by S. Krinik and advised by Dr. Kim, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, California State University, Long Beach, Fall 2023

• Machine Learning-Based Time Series Forecasting and Model Performance Evaluation, advised by Dr. Kim, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, California State University, Long Beach, Fall 2023

Selected Research Projects in Economics 

• Game Theory: The Interpretation of the Colonel Blotto Game in Probability Theory, Senior Project, advised by Dr. Weimerskirch, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2017

• The Gravity Model of International Trade under the Armington Assumption: An Empirical Analysis of Bilateral Trade Flows and GDP, Advanced Undergraduate Empirical Research Paper, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Mobile Cellular Subscriptions and Economic Development: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis of GDP per Capita, Undergraduate Empirical Research Paper, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Presentations and Talks

• Ang, J. B. and McKibbin, W. J. (2007). Financial Liberalization, Financial Sector Development and Growth: Evidence from Malaysia. Journal of Development Economics, 84, 215–233. Expository Talk, Graduate Statistics Seminar, University of Illinois Chicago, October, 2026

• Hao, N., Feng, Y., and Zhang, H. H. (2018). Model Selection for High-Dimensional Quadratic Regression via Regularization. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 113(522), 615–625. Expository Talk, Graduate Statistics Seminar, University of Illinois Chicago, February, 2026

Teaching Assistant Experience

• Fall 2026

MATH 218: Applied Linear Algebra

• Summer 2026

MATH 220: Introduction to Differential Equations

• Spring 2026

STAT 101: Introduction to Statistics

• Fall 2025

MATH 180: Calculus 1

• Spring 2025

MATH 181: Calculus 2

• Fall 2024

MATH 180: Calculus 1 

Work Experience

• Several unrelated work experiences (as an artillery drill instructor in the Army, product manager, etc)