Welcome to Zekun Xu’s Github page. I am currently an Applied Scientist at Amazon. I got my PhD degree in Statistics at North Carolina State University. I did my research internship at SAS Institute, data scientist internship at Google, and worked 2 years as biostatistician in the industry. My research interests include hidden Markov models, reinforcement learning, anomaly detection, NLP, and differential privacy.

Education

North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

• Ph.D. in Statistics, August 2015 - May 2020

• Thesis ”Modern Methods of Hidden Markov Models and Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes in Biostatistics”, supervised by Dr. Eric Laber and Dr. Ana-Maria Staicu

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

• Master of Statistical Practice, August 2012 - May 2013

Fudan University, Shanghai, China

• Bachelor of Arts in Economics (Finance Major), September 2008 - May 2012

Awards and Honors

• Winner of Student Paper Competition for ASA Health Policy Statistics at JSM 2020

• NC ASA Young Researcher Award for 2018 AISC Conference2018

• Recognition for Excellence in Classroom Teaching at NCSU in 2017

• Mu Sigma Rho, National Statistics Honor Society

Experience

Amazon, Seattle, WA, USA

• Applied Scientist II, July 2020 - Present

Google, Kirkland, WA, USA

• Data Scientist Intern, May 2019 - August 2019

SAS Institute, Cary, NC, USA

• Graduate Research Intern, May 2018 - April 2019 and September 2019 - May 2020

• Research on anomaly detection algorithms, with US patent (#10509847) on automatic parameter tuning for local outlier factor

INC Research, Beijing, China

• Biostatistician in Biometrics Group, March 2014 - June 2015

• Develop statistical analysis plan, randomization schedules, and ADaM specifications for Phase I - IV clinical trials

Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA

• Biostatistician in Outcomes Research, July 2013 - March 2014

---