Daniel KowalView profile
Associate Professor
Daniel Kowal is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics and Data Science at Cornell University, effective July 2024. Previously, he served as the Dobelman Chair Assistant Professor at Rice University. His research focuses on Bayesian methodology for complex dependent data, including functional, time series, and spatial datasets, with applications in environmental health, epidemiology, finance, and astronomy. He develops scalable algorithms for high-dimensional data and interpretable uncertainty quantification. His work has been recognized with the Blackwell-Rosenbluth Award (2021) and ARO Young Investigator Award (2020). Education: Ph.D. in Statistics (Cornell University), M.S. in Statistics (Cornell University), B.A. in Mathematics (Washington University in St. Louis). Research interests include Bayesian models for prediction/inference, decision theory, discrete data analysis, and scalable approximations. Key areas of application: environmental health policy, wearable devices, economics, biomedical engineering, and astronomy. Recent grants include NSF-funded projects on adaptive dependent data models and Army Research Office initiatives on Bayesian approximations. He has supervised multiple Ph.D. students, including Yunan Gao, Thomas Sun, and Brian King. His software contributions include R packages like countSTAR, SeBR, and lmabc for Bayesian regression and data synthesis. Awards include Lindley Prize Honorable Mention (2024), Arnold Zellner Thesis Award (2018), and numerous student paper awards from ASA sections.









