Research Interests: 
Stochastic inference in single molecule biophysics, chemistry and biology
Bayesian inference of stochastic models
Nonparametric methods, model selection and empirical Bayes
Monte Carlo methods
Economic and financial modeling

Education

• Ph.D. in Statistics, Stanford University, June 2001.
• M.S. in Statistics, Stanford University, March 2000.
• B. S. in Computational Mathematics, Peking University, July 1997.

Experience

• July 2008 -- now, Professor of Statistics, Harvard University
• July 2005 -- June 2008, John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences, Harvard University
• July 2001 -- June 2005, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Harvard University
• September 1997 -- June 2001, Teaching Assistant and Instructor, Department of Statistics, Stanford University

Sample Publications

• Xianchao Xie, Samuel Kou and Lawrence D. Brown (2012). SURE estimates for a heteroscedastic hierarchical model. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 107, 1465-1479.
• Samuel Kou, Benjamin Olding, Martin Lysy and Jun Liu (2012). A multiresolution method for parameter estimation of diffusion processes. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 107, 1558-1574.
• Samuel Kou and Peter McCullagh (2009). Approximating the α-permanent. Biometrika, 96, 635-644. Supplementary material: matrices used in the paper.
• Samuel Kou (2008). Stochastic networks in nanoscale biophysics: modeling enzymatic reaction of a single protein. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 103, 961-975.
• Samuel Kou (2008). Stochastic modeling in nanoscale biophysics: subdiffusion within proteins. Ann. Appl. Statist., 2, 501-535.
• Samuel Kou, Qing Zhou and Wing Wong (2006). Equi-energy sampler with applications in statistical inference and statistical mechanics (with discussion). Ann. Statist., 34, 1581-1652.
• Samuel Kou, Sunney Xie and Jun Liu (2005). Bayesian analysis of single-molecule experimental data (with discussion). J. Roy. Statist. Soc., C, 54, 469-506.
• Samuel Kou, Binny Cherayil, Wei Min, Brian English and Sunney Xie (2005). Single-molecule Michaelis-Menten equations . Journal of Physical Chemistry, B, 109, 19068-19081.
• Samuel Kou (2004). From finite sample to asymptotics: a geometric bridge for selection criteria in spline regression. Ann. Statist., 32, 2444-2468.
• Samuel Kou and Sunney Xie (2004). Generalized Langevin equation with fractional Gaussian noise: subdiffusion within a single protein molecule. Physical Review Letters, 93, 180603(1)-180603(4).
• Samuel Kou and Steve Kou (2003). Modeling growth stocks via birth-death processes. Advances in Applied Probability, 35, 641-664.
• Samuel Kou and Bradley Efron (2002). Smoothers and the Cp, GML and EE criteria: a geometric approach. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc., 97, 766-782.

Personal Website

Administrative Coordinator:
Emily Palmer
emily_palmer@fas.harvard.edu
Science Center 400b
One Oxford Street    
Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
(617) 495-5496