Zoe Vernon

Zoe Vernon

Statistics PhD Student

CV

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, Washington University in St. Louis, Graduated May 2017.

Masters of Arts in Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, Graduated May 2020.

(Current) Ph.D Candidate in Statistics, University of California, Berkeley, May 2021 (expected).

Research

Aug. 2017 - Present: Graduate Student Researcher, Department of Statistics, University of California, Berkeley

  • Advised by Professor Haiyan Huang and co-advised by Professor Peter Bickel.
  • Developing methods to address issues that arise in analyzing genomic and biomedical data.
  • Developed a robust count-based statistic to measure negative dependency between gene expression profiles to assist in drug discovery.
  • Working to extend the semi-supervised learning technique, Gene-Fishing, to be applicable to single cell RNA sequence data.
  • Analyzing MRI and genomic data from multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to improve clinical experience.

Summer 2019: Intern at Genentech

  • Implemented predictive models of cancer patient survival for various levels of data aggregation using random forest and penalized regression.

Summer 2016: Participant in Summer Institute in Biostatistics, North Carolina State University

Jan 2014 - May 2015: Research Assistant, Winthrop University

  • Worked with Professor Joseph Rusinko
  • Researching mathematical properties of phylogenetic trees

Summer 2014: Participant in Research Experience of Undergraduates (REU), Winthrop University

Teaching

(Current, Fall 2018) Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) for STAT 215A - Statistical Models: Theory and Application I, University of California, Berkeley

Publications

Mauhar M, Rusinko J, Vernon Z. H-representation of the Kimura-3 polytope. SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics. 31(2):783–795, 2017.

Davidson R, Rusinko J, Vernon Z, Xi J. Modeling the distribution of distance data in Euclidean space. AMS Contemporary Mathematics Series: Algebraic and Geometric Methods in Applied Discrete Mathematics. 685:117, 2017.

Bradley L, Moan E, Vernon Z. Fusion in Card Collecting Games: A Probable Outcome. SIAM Undergraduate Research Online. http://www.siam.org/students/siuro/vol10/ S01416.pdf.

Talks

Leveraging molecular data in drug discovery using count statistics, INFORMS, Seatlle, WA, 2019.

Combinatorics of Card Collecting Games, Showcase of Undergraduate Research and Endeavors, Rock Hill, SC, 2015

H-representation of the Kimura-3 polytope, NIMBioS Undergraduate Research Conference, Knoxville, TN, 2014

Leadership

Statistics Graduate Student Association co-President, University of California, Berkeley.

  • 2019-2020 school year.
  • Responsible for coordinating social and academic committees.