mathematics

Linda Zhao

Linda Zhao is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Linda Zhao rather than just read about it. In short: Linda Hong Zhao is a Chinese-American statistician. She is a Professor of Statistics and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Key takeaways

Linda Zhao belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Linda Zhao to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Linda Zhao from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Linda Hong Zhao is a Chinese-American statistician. She is a Professor of Statistics and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. Zhao specializes in modern machine learning methods.

Early life and education In 1982, Zhao obtained her Bachelor of Science from the Department of Mathematics at Nankai University. She later emigrated to the United States and attended Cornell University, where she obtained her Ph.D from the Department of Statistics in 1993.

Career Zhao became an assistant professor statistics at University of California, Los Angeles in 1993, before joining the Wharton School in 1994, where she is currently a Professor of Statistics. Her specialty falls in modern machine learning methods, replicability in science, high dimensional data, housing price prediction, and Bayesian methods. Current projects include equity ownership network, and its relationship to firm performance and innovation activities; identify signals from noisy data using non-parametric Bayesian scheme; and model-free data analysis. Her work has won National Science Foundation support for over 20 years.

Personal life Zhao was married to Lawrence D. Brown (1940–2018), a fellow statistician at the Wharton School.

Honors and awards Fellow, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, 2017

Selected publications Zhao, L. H. (2000) Bayesian aspects of some nonparametric problems, The Annals of Statistics, 28, 532–552. doi:10.1214/aos/1016218229 Mao, V. and Zhao, L. H. (2003) Free knot polynomial splines with confidence intervals, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 65, 901-919. doi:10.1046/j.1369-7412.2003.00422.x Berk, R., Brown, L.B. and Zhao, L. (2010) Statistical inference after model selection, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 26, 217-236 doi:10.1007/s10940-009-9077-7 Nagaraja, C. H., Brown, L.D. and Zhao, L. (2010) An autoregressive approach to house price modeling, to appear The Annals of Applied Statistics. doi:10.1214/10-AOAS380

References

External links Wharton Faculty Webpage Personal Website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Linda Zhao

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Linda Zhao claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Linda Zhao before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Linda Zhao ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Linda Zhao

In research: Linda Zhao appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Linda Zhao in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Linda Zhao is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century American women, American women statisticians, Chinese emigrants to the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Linda Zhao outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Linda Zhao in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Linda Zhao means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Linda Zhao out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Linda Zhao in simple terms?

Linda Hong Zhao is a Chinese-American statistician. She is a Professor of Statistics and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Why does Linda Zhao matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Linda Zhao?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Linda Zhao.