Person-to-person: Yawen Guan
Yawen Guan, a graduate student in statistics, has been working with Murali Haran since 2013. After watching Haran organize a weekly seminar on Stochastic Modeling and Computing and learning he collaborated with scientists on various environmental and climate-related research, Guan knew she wanted to work with Haran.
“I was interested in working on developing statistical methods for interesting problems and I knew that by working with him I would get to meet scientists and learn about interesting topics such as ice sheet dynamics, climate models, and use statistical tools for climate risk assessment,” she said.
Now Guan is an integral member of Haran’s research group, focusing her efforts on the Antarctic ice sheet research.
“My projects involve developing statistical and computational techniques for analyzing large spatial data sets and a new approach for learning about the thickness of the ice sheet using ice sheet physics and data obtained from satellite images,” she said.
The skills she’s learned by working with Haran, including research skills, science communication and writing skills, and computing, will serve her well in her intended career of academia. Guan hopes to obtain a faculty or postdoctoral researcher position after she graduates.
“Dr. Haran has spent a lot of time helping me develop these skills and has provided opportunities to give talks locally, and travel and meet researchers at other institutions. Through his research grant, I have even had the opportunity to mentor undergraduate researchers, which has been very valuable because I hope to eventually work at a teaching institution,” she said.
In her free time, Guan loves to garden, and devotes much of her free time to her portion of a community garden at Penn State. “Seeing my hard gardening work translate into delicious food is very rewarding!”