Curriculum Vitae of Zsolt Talata

Contact Information

Postal address:

Zsolt TALATA

Department of Mathematics, University of Kansas
1460 Jayhawk Boulevard, Snow Hall, Room 405
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7523, USA.

E-mail:

Send me an e-mail.

Phone:

(785) 864 0109 [office]

Fax:

(785) 864 5255 [department]

Homepage:

http://www.math.ku.edu/~talata

Present Position

2007 - present

Assistant Professor

at	Department of Mathematics, The University of Kansas, USA.

Research area:

mathematical statistics, probability, information theory

Previous Positions

2005 - 2007

Visiting Assistant Professor

at	School of Mathematics, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

Research area:

mathematical statistics, probability, bioinformatics

2004 - 2005

Young Research Fellow

at	Stochastics Research Group, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary.

Research area:

information-theoretical methods in mathematical statistics,
model selection, Gibbs fields

2003 - 2004

Junior Researcher

at	Information Theory Research Division, Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary.

Research area:

information-theoretical methods in mathematical statistics,
model selection, Gibbs fields

Visiting Position

2005

Invited Researcher (for 1 month)

at	Laboratoire de Mathématique, Université Paris-Sud, France.

Research area:

model selection

Education

2000 - 2003

Ph.D. student

at	Department of Stochastics, Doctoral School of Mathematical Institute, Faculty of Science, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary,

and	Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Hungary.

Degree:	Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, June 2005 with summa cum laude qualification
Thesis advisor:	Imre Csiszár
Thesis title:	Model Selection via Information Criteria for Tree Models and Markov Random Fields

1998 - 2002

Took the following courses of mathematics major at Faculty of Science, Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary.

Courses in measure-theory based probability: Probability Theory, Mathematical Statistics I-II-III, Multivariate Statistics I-II, Markov Chains, Independent Increment and Markov Processes, Information Theory, Martingale Theory, System Theory I-II, Lifetime-Data Analysis

Related courses: Functional Analysis, Function Series, Differential Equations

1993 - 2000

Graduate and undergraduate student

at	Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary.

Degree:

M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, June 2000
with excellent qualification

Grants

2009	NSF grant DMS 0906929 (3 years) "Information-Theoretical Methods in Statistics." PI: Talata.

2008	NASA GSRP grant NNX08AV41H (2 years) "Modified Lorentzian Modeling of OH, H20, and SO4 Spectral Absorption Bands to Determine the Presence of Phyllosilicates and Sulfates on Mars." PI: Talata, student: Makarewicz.

2008	University of Kansas NFGRF grant 2302156 (1 year) "Context Tree Estimation for Finite and Infinite Memory Processes, via Bayesian Information Criterion." PI: Talata.

2006	Hungarian National Committee for Technological Development (OMFB), Programme d’Action Integrees (PAI) Balaton grant F-23/2005 OMFB-00421/2006 (2 years) "Information Theory and Statistics." PIs: Csiszar and Gassiat.

2004	Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research (OTKA) grant T046376 (4 years) "Information Theory and Its Applications." PI: Csiszar.

Prizes, Awards, and Scholarships

2006	"Thank a Teacher" Certificate by Georgia Institute of Technology For teaching excellence.

2000	Ph.D. Scholarship for 3 years by Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

2000	Dunaferr Award by Dunaferr Danube Iron Works, Inc. For excellence in electrical engineering studies.

2000	Dissertation Award by Budapest and Pest County Chamber of Engineering For the dissertation entitled "Order Estimation of Dynamic Neural Networks."

2000	3rd Prize, Dissertation Competition "Industry for the Modern Engineering Education" Foundation and LANeX Consulting Ltd. For the dissertation entitled "Order Estimation of Dynamic Neural Networks."
1999	2nd Prize, Informatics Section, Students' Scientific National Conference (OTDK) Essay on "Structure and Order Estimation of Neural Network Models of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems."

1998	1st Prize, Control Section, Students' Scientific Conference (TDK), Technical University of Budapest Essay on "Structure and Order Estimation of Neural Network Models of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems."

1997	2nd-3rd Prize, Signal Processing Competition, Technical University of Budapest

1996	Schlumberger Scholarship by Schlumberger Industries

Teaching Experience

2007 - present

Statistical Theory (grad)
Mathematical Theory of Statistics (grad/undergrad)
Probability (grad/undergrad)
Applied Mathematical Statistics (upper-undergrad)
Elementary Statistics (undergrad)
at The University of Kansas, USA.

2005 - 2007

Probability I (a measure-theory based graduate course)
Mathematical Statistics I, II (grad/undergrad)
Statistics and Applications (upper-undergrad)
Introduction to Probability and Statistics (upper-undergrad)
at Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

2005	Information Theory (in international Ph.D. program) at Central European University, Hungary.

2000 - 2005

Calculus, Multivariate Calculus, Differential Geometry, Function Series, Linear Algebra and Probability Theory
at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary.

Publications and Presentations

See here.