Profiles

Bayesian and computational Statistics.

Eman Kabbas earned a Bachelor of Science and Education in Mathematics from Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University and a Master’s in Mathematics from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her academic journey, marked by deep curiosity and dedication, led her to become a lecturer at Jubail Industrial College (JIC). Now, as a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Mathematics and Computational Sciences under the mentorship of Professor Håvard Rue, Eman delves into Bayesian and computational statistics, striving to bridge theoretical concepts with practical applications. Eman is dedicated to fostering a new way of teaching statistics and data science through her research experience.

Eman Kabbas's research interests focus on developing and applying spline models in non-parametric regression. She addresses the limitations of splines in prediction tasks with insufficient data by proposing a spline model suitable for both regular and irregular observations, leverages Bayesian techniques to ensure efficient modeling and reliable predictions.

Hanan Alahmadi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Statistics program (CEMSE) at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), specializing in spatial methods for health surveillance in Saudi Arabia, with a focus on data integration and cluster detection under the supervision of Professor Paula Moraga. Her research combines satellite and health data to monitor disease and environmental risks and to develop GIS platforms that support data-driven decision-making. She holds a master’s degree in statistics from KAUST, where she was supervised by Professor Håvard Rue. Hanan is also a lecturer at King Saud University and the founder of Sorat Alardh, a space-tech startup that harnesses Earth observation data for environmental and health applications. Her work has been recognized with several honors, including a grant from the Communications, Space & Technology Commission (CST) and her selection as a finalist in the Falling Walls competition.

• Geospatial data analysis and health surveillance
• Spatio-temporal disease data
• Statistics and spatial epidemiology
• Geospatial modeling
• Disease mapping

João Vitor Cordeiro de Brito is a MS/PhD student in the Statistics Program at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST).

Prior to KAUST, he obtained his degree in Applied Mathematics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. During his bachelors, João did undergraduate research on ergodic aspects of problems from number theory, and was awarded with honors/prizes in national and international contests in mathematics.

His research interests lie primarily in the intersection of harmonic analysis, statistical inference, and network science, with applications in neuroscience, among others.

Małgorzata Forystek is a Statistics Master's student at the Bayesian Computational Statistics & Modeling research group  (BAYESCOMP) under the supervision of Professor Håvard Rue. She received her B.Sc. degree in Applied Mathematics from AGH University of Science and Technology in Kraków, Poland, in 2023.

Her research interest is mainly in Bayesian and computational Statistics and Data Science.

Education and Early Career

Paolo Redondo obtained his Bachelor's and Master's (M.Sc.) of Statistics from the University of the Philippines Diliman. He joined the PhD program in Statistics at KAUST in 2021.

• Extreme statistics.
• Time series.

Qilong Pan is a Ph.D. candidate in Statistics at KAUST, under the supervision of Prof. Ying Sun. Prior to his Ph.D., he earned a master's degree in Statistics at KAUST, and a bachelor's degree in Statistics from Wuhan University of Technology.

Qilong Pan's work bridges statistical modeling, optimization, and high-performance computing (HPC) to tackle complex challenges in geospatial analytics and machine learning. 

His research interest is mainly in Bayesian and computational Statistics, currently working on Directional Statistics and applications with R-INLA. He is also interested in Deep/Machine Learning algorithms.