Yabo Niu, Ph.D., a Presidential Frontier Faculty at the University of Houston and holds dual appointments. As an assistant professor in the Tilman J. Fertitta Family College of Medicine’s Department of Health Systems and Population Health Sciences, he provides statistical support for both faculty and students, conducts joint research with faculty, and facilitates the development and evaluation of curriculum. He also helps supervise and provide guidance for student research projects.

Niu is also an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematics at the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

His research interests include Bayesian nonparametrics and their applications to analyze high-throughput genetic data, and covariate-dependent graphical models among other things. Such models can facilitate the development of personalized therapeutic options to cancer patients based on genetic markers, which could have a profound impact on improving human life. Niu’s research focuses on developing novel Bayesian statistical methods and their theoretical properties, motivated by real biological applications.

Previously, he worked as a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Statistics at Texas A&M University.

His work has been published in various prestigious journals, including Cancer Informatics, Science Advances, Amino Acids in Nutrition and Health and Bernoulli.

Niu earned his doctorate in statistics from Texas A&M University in 2019 and a bachelor’s degree in statistics from Nankai University in China.