2007 Graduate Catalog and 2006 Annual R & D Report - Sirindhorn ...

2007 Graduate Catalog and 2006 Annual R & D Report
Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology (SIIT)
Dr. Ruben N. Mera
Assistant Professor
B. Math, University of the Republic Montevideo, Uruguay
M.Sc. Mathematical Statistics, CIENES, Santiago, Chile
D.E.A. Probability, University of Paris VI, France
Ph.D. Mathematics, Auburn University, Alabama, USA
Areas of Specialization: Complex-survey designs, Complex variables.
Research Interests:
Complex-Survey Designs and Estimation
A complex-survey design incorporates elements such
as stratification, clustering, unequal inclusion
probabilities, and weighting, among others. Under a
complex design, observations do not follow the
standard assumptions of Independent Identically
Distributed (IID) observations of classic statistical
analysis. Missing values induce bias, and imputation
contributes to inflate variances. The way these
different factors interact is not well known. Survey
designs must integrate all the components of the
population structure. Estimation and variance
estimation must account for all the complexities of the
design.
Disclosure Avoidance
Government agencies are required to protect
respondents’ confidentiality, both to comply with law
requisites as well as to insure an accurate data
collection. The public release of microdata prompts
the risk of identification of a respondent by a third
party. Masking techniques, such as data disturbance
or swapping, to avoid the linking of observations to
respondents, are typical methods to prevent identity
disclosure. Masking procedures, however, distort the
data and induce bias. The challenge is to produce
public data files that are representative of the
population and, at the same time, insure the
respondents’ privacy.
Best Polynomial Interpolation
The field of polynomial interpolation and
approximation has been exhaustively investigated in
the past. Diverse methods were developed for
constructing polynomials such that, the polynomial
and some of its derivatives agree on a set of given
points with the values of the function and its
derivatives. The choice of the points to obtain the best
approximating polynomial, however, has not been
explored in detail. Research on the best
approximating polynomial is, therefore, of interest to
pursue.
Dr. Thawatchai Onjun
Assistant Professor
B.S. in Physics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York, USA
M.S. in Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Ph.D. in Physics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA
Areas of Specialization: Theoretical and computational plasma physics.
Research Interest:
Theoretical and Computational Plasma Physics
Fusion-related research with focus on thermal and
particle transport such as predicting the time evolution
of temperature and density profiles in tokamaks using
an integrated modeling approach. Integrated
modeling is an important element of tokamak fusion
research that contributes in an essential way to the
interpretation and planning of experiments, validation
of theory against experimental results, development
of plasma control techniques, and the design of next
step devices such as ITER. Research is closely
related to ongoing and proposed experiments at
major fusion laboratories.
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