Victor Panaretos / Home Page

As of the next academic year, I will be taking up the the Chair of Mathematical Statistics as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Mathematics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne).

Research Interests

Perhaps a good general description of my research interests is the development of statistical methodology, the investigation of probability models and the analysis of data that arise in the context of physical applications.

My thesis focuses on certain statistical inverse problems of a tomographic nature that arise in the field of single-particle electron microscopy. Under the guidance of my research advisor, David Brillinger, I have been collaborating with Robert Glaeser (Molecular and Cell Biology and LBNL) on statistical approaches for structural inference on biological particles at molecular dimensions. This work has also motivated me to do some work in stochastic geometry, and in particular in diffusions of shape.

Another interest arising from my collaboration with Sir David Cox (University of Oxford) is that of the modeling of stochastic epidemics when observations are assumed to be imperfect, in the sense that they are subject to some random modification mechanism.

I am supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

Publications

Panaretos, V.M. (2007). Partially Observed Branching Processes for Stochastic Epidemics. Journal of Mathematical Biology, 54 (5), 645-668.

SpringerLink Reprint

Panaretos, V.M. (2006). The diffusion of Radon Shape. Advances in Applied Probability (SGSA), 38 (2), 320-335.

projectEuclid Reprint

Invited Talks

Apr 2007: Department of Statistics, Stanford University

Apr 2007: Department of Statistics, University of California at Berkeley

Mar 2007: Glaeser Lab, Life Sciences Division,

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Feb 2007: Statistical Laboratory, Department of Pure Mathematics and

Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge

Feb 2007: Department of Statistics, University of Chicago

Feb 2007: Department of Statistics, University of Washington at Seattle

Jan 2007: Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics and

Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University.

Jan 2007: Department of Statistics, The Wharton School,

University of Pennsylvania

Jan 2007: Institute of Mathematics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,

Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

Nov 2006: Department of Statistics, University of Oxford

Nov 2006: Department of Mathematics, University of California at San Diego

May 2006: Department of Statistics, University of Warwick

Sep 2005: Glaeser Lab, Life Sciences Division,

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Dec 2004: Glaeser Lab, Life Sciences Division,

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Degrees

I graduated this May with a PhD in Statistics from the Department of Statistics, University of California at Berkeley. Thesis title:

"Inverse Problems, Stochastic Geometry, Structural Biology"

I was awarded the "Erich L. Lehmann Award for an Outstanding PhD Dissertation in Theoretical Statistics".

I obtained my undergraduate degree summa cum laude from the Department of Statistics of the Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece, completing the 4 year program in 3 years. I spent my 3^rd year as an Erasmus visiting student at the Department of Mathematics, Trinity College Dublin.

My Mathematical Genealogy

My mathematical genealogy can be found here

Teaching

During my second year at Berkeley I TAed for the following courses:

STAT 204: Probability for Applications (under Steve Evans). Graduate Level Course in Probability and Stochastic Processes

STAT 215B: Applied Statistics at an Advanced Level (under David Brillinger). Graduate Level Course in Statistical Methods.

Q&A For Prospective Students

During my term (2004-2006) as President of the SGSA (Statistics Graduate Student Association), I have received a few emails from students thinking of applying to Berkeley trying to get some more information. For a few questions and (hopefully helpful) answers click here.

Academic Visits

I spent the spring semester of 2004 as an academic visitor at the Department of Statistics of the University of Oxford, working with Sir David Cox.

During May 2005 I visited Professor Robert Glaeser during his sabbatical at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge.

Interesting Links

The Times Higher Education Supplement World Ranking of Universities 2004 .
The pdf file with the full list and ranking criteria may be found here

SGSA (Statistics Graduate Student Association)

Berkeley Statistics t-shirt design contest

Some Friends/Colleagues

Although it is irrelevant (at least to be featured on this page), I'm a fan of Monty Python.

My favorite sketch, The International Philosophy Match:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrShK-NVMIU