Hyungsuk Tak

Assistant Professor and ICDS Co-Hire
Hyungsuk Tak
Hyungsuk
Tak
Assistant Professor and ICDS Co-Hire
Department Affiliations
Interests
Astrostatistics
Statistical Computation
Bayesian Methods
Address
Phone
814-865-3791
Website
Personal Site

Biography

Hyungsuk (Tak) Tak is an Assistant Professor of Statistics, Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State.

Dr. Tak received his Ph.D. in Statistics from Harvard University in 2016. He received his A.M. in Statistics from Harvard University in 2012, and a B.A. in Statistics from Korea University in 2009.

In preparation for the era of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), Tak works closely with astronomers and astrophysicists to analyze astronomical time series and imaging data, developing practically motivated data analytic tools. Specifically, his research interests are (i) statistical challenges in astronomical data analysis such as heteroscedasticity, outliers, irregularly-spaced time series, (ii) time delay cosmography for the Hubble constant estimation, (iii) statistical computation via data augmentation and Markov chain Monte Carlo, and (iv) Bayesian hierarchical modeling with frequency coverage evaluation.

 

Honors and Awards

Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching of Undergraduates, 2016.

 

Publications

  • S. Shy, H. Tak, E. D. Feigelson, J. D. Timlin, and G. J. Babu (2022), "Incorporating Measurement Error in Astronomical Object Classification",  The Astronomical Journal, 164 (1), 6-19.
  • Z. Hu and H. Tak (2020), "Modeling Stochastic Variability in  Multi-Band Time Series Data'', The Astronomical Journal, 160 (6), 265-276.
  • H. Tak, K. You, S. K. Ghosh, B. Su, and J. Kelly (2020), "Data Transforming Augmentation for Heteroscedastic Models", Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 29 (3), 659-667.
  • H. Tak, J. A. Ellis, and S. K. Ghosh (2019), "Robust and Accurate Inference via a Mixture of Gaussian and Student's t Errors," Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 28 (2), 415-426.
  • H. Tak, X.-L. Meng, and D. A. van Dyk (2018), "A Repelling-Attracting Metropolis Algorithm for Multimodality," Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 27 (3), 479-490.
  • H. Tak, S. K. Ghosh, and J. A. Ellis (2018), "How Proper Are Bayesian Models in the Astronomical Literature?" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 481 (1), 277-285.
  • H. Tak and C. N. Morris (2017), "Data-dependent Posterior Propriety of a Bayesian Beta-Binomial-Logit Model," Bayesian Analysis, 12 (2), 533-555.
  • H. Tak, J. Kelly, and C. N. Morris (2017), "Rgbp: An R Package for Gaussian, Poisson, and Binomial Random Effects Models with Frequency Coverage Evaluations," Journal of Statistical Software, 78 (5), 1-33.
  • H. Tak, K. Mandel, D. A. van Dyk, V. L. Kashyap, X.-L. Meng, and A. Siemiginowska (2017), "Bayesian Estimates of Astronomical Time Delays between Gravitationally Lensed Stochastic Light Curves," The Annals of Applied Statistics, 11 (3), 1309-1348.

 

Teaching

Stat 540 - Statistical Computing

Astro 415 - Introduction to Astrostatistics

Stat 414/Math 414 - Introduction to Probability Theory

Stat 415/Math 415 - Introduction to Mathematical Statistics