About Hernando Ombao Hernando Ombao Professor, Statistics Time Series Spectral Analysis Wavelets Longitudinal Models Mixed Effects Models Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Electroencephalograms KAUST Professor of Statistics Hernando Ombao is an expert in time series models and their applications to designed medical experiments on complex biological processes. Articles Related News July 2026 CEMSE SRSI intern Safeer Ahmad earns second place at Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab Hackathon 3 min read · Sun, Jul 5 2026 Awards News Biostatistics data science AI digital health Safeer Ahmad's AI-powered NeuroDrive, developed through CEMSE research mentorship, earned second place among 2,040 participants from 41 countries at the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab Hackathon. November 2025 KAUST Ph.D. candidate Mara Sherlin Talento wins International Statistics Institute (ISI) Services Award 3 min read · Tue, Nov 25 2025 Awards News Biostatistics KAUST Ph.D. candidate Mara Sherlin Talento has received the International Statistics Institute (ISI) Services Award in recognition of her leadership, global outreach, and contributions to the development of young statisticians. September 2023 Top honors for KAUST extSTAT group at EVA 2023 2 min read · Wed, Sep 13 2023 Awards News KAUST extSTAT Research Group wins prestigious awards at EVA 2023 Conference in Milan. Congratulations to Daniela for successfully defending her PhD thesis 1 min read · Mon, Sep 11 2023 Spotlight News Left: Daniela and three (out of four) committee members after her PhD defense, with Prof. Jorge Mateu (left), Daniela (center left), Prof. Raphaël Huser (center right), and Prof. Hernando Ombao (right). Prof. Matteo Parsani (not on the picture) was the last committee member. Right: picture taken after the defense, with Daniela (center) and Prof. Raphael Huser (in right corner holding his three kids). April 2023 KAUST STAT Program graduates secure faculty positions at prominent U.S. universities 7 min read · Wed, Apr 19 2023 News KAUST graduates are characterized by the rigor of their Ph.D. programs, the long hours spent in the lab and classroom, juggling professional and personal commitments, achieving a work-life balance and, more recently, the ability to adapt to a global pandemic. Congratulations to Matheus for successfully defending his PhD thesis 1 min read · Tue, Apr 4 2023 Spotlight News Left: Mathues and the beging of his defense, with Matheus (front) and Prof. Raphaël (right). Right: picture taken after the defense, with Matheus (center) and Prof. Raphael Huser (in his left side). March 2023 KAUST Ph.D. student’s paper recognized by the American Statistical Association 2 min read · Mon, Mar 27 2023 News Spotlight KAUST Ph.D. statistics student Paolo Victor Redondo was selected as a runner-up in the American Statistical Association’s (ASA) Statistics in Imaging Section 2023 Distinguished Student Paper Award Competition June 2022 Extreme analysis of seizures 1 min read · Mon, Jun 27 2022 News neuroscience machine learning human health statistics CEMSE researchers Matheus Guerrero, Raphaël Huser and Hernando Ombao developed a new approach for analyzing seizures in epilepsy patients by applying extreme value theory to real EEG seizure data. March 2022 New paper accepted in Annals of Applied Statistics 1 min read · Wed, Mar 9 2022 Spotlight News New paper accepted: Guerrero, M. B., Huser, R., and Ombao, H. (2022+), Conex-Connect: Learning patterns in extremal brain connectivity from multi-channel EEG data, Annals of Applied Statistics, to appear [ PDF preprint]. December 2021 Finding true protein hotspots in cancer research 1 min read · Wed, Dec 8 2021 News proteins statistics cancer human health Novel statistical methods help tell the difference between "false positives" and true detections of protein domain hotspots that could be linked to cancer. September 2021 Meet KAUST new student: Daniel Osorio Barreto 1 min read · Wed, Sep 1 2021 News Biostatistics macroeconomics Daniel Osorio Barreto, is an economics graduate who joined KAUST this fall from Universidad Autónoma de Manizales, Colombia. He is as a Ph.D. student and member of the KAUST Biostatistics Group under the supervision of Professor Hernando Ombao. April 2021 A brainwave from social networks 1 min read · Wed, Apr 14 2021 News neuroscience extreme computing statistics The statistics used to understand social networks reveal the diversity of functional connections in the brain. December 2020 KAUST STAT students come together for second ASA chapter meeting 2 min read · Thu, Dec 3 2020 News statistics data science Members of the KAUST American Statistical Association (ASA) student chapter recently came together for the group’s second online meeting held on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. The meeting served as an orientation exercise for new KAUST Statistics (STAT) Program students while also highlighting the shared experience of STAT Ph.D. candidates: Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, Yuxiao Li, and Gaurav Agarwal. November 2020 Sci-Café on Statistics 1 min read · Mon, Nov 23 2020 News statistics Watch Sci-Café featuring panelists David Bolin, Hernando Ombao and Paula Moraga, with moderator Naadiya Carrim, by tuning in to the live Zoom feed, where you’ll be able to ask questions during the event, or by tuning in to the KAUST Official Facebook page or YouTube channel. October 2020 Today we celebrate World Statistics Day! 1 min read · Tue, Oct 20 2020 News statistics healthcare Let’s discover the world of the statisticians at KAUST and be ready to be amazed by their cutting-edge research! July 2020 A shock to the system 3 min read · Wed, Jul 22 2020 News Spectral Analysis numerical analysis COVID-19 research The global, multifarious challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic has scientists tapping their wide-ranging fields of expertise to attack the problem on many fronts. Answering the call from KAUST President Tony Chan, and coordinated by the University's leadership team, KAUST researchers making up the Rapid Research Response Team (R3T) are turning this crisis into an opportunity to innovate. April 2020 Unlocking coronavirus' secrets through cellphone data and social media 1 min read · Sun, Apr 12 2020 News Dr. Paula Moraga is part of a multidisciplinary KAUST research team that applies models to COVID-19. She has worked on projects examining malaria in Africa and leptospirosis in Brazil, and the models she develops rely on in-depth knowledge about each disease. "With malaria, for example, we know that it's transmitted by mosquitoes," said Moraga. "So, if some regions have a high density of mosquitoes, are close to bodies of water or have a lot of humidity, we know that we are going to probably see a high risk of this disease." Into the unknown In many places, malaria and leptospirosis July 2019 Epilepsy study shows the shape of things to come 1 min read · Sun, Jul 21 2019 News brain science bioscience statistics Pyramidal graphs resulting from statistical analyses of EEG recordings can improve our understanding of epileptic seizures. March 2019 Clustering helps unlock secrets of the human brain 1 min read · Sun, Mar 31 2019 News statistics brain science environmental science The latest statistical methods from research on complex high-dimensional environmental data also yield powerful tools for interpreting brain activity. November 2018 2018 Workshop on Statistics and Data Science 1 min read · Sat, Nov 10 2018 News statistics data analysis The Statistics Program at KAUST is proud to host the 2018 Workshop on Statistics and Data Science. This workshop gathers the leading experts on statistical data science to discuss the current needs, challenges and opportunities of modeling massive and high dimensional data, predicting complex biological and physical processes. The workshop will run from November 12-14. Talks and posters presentations will take place in Auditorium 0215 (between Buildings 4 & 5). Details on the workshop (speakers, abstracts and schedule) can be found here. October 2018 Stimulating deeper insights into brain function 1 min read · Thu, Oct 18 2018 News neuroscience statistics Modeling changes in brain activity over time provides deeper insights into learning and behavioral responses. May 2018 Connecting the dots to unlock brain structure 1 min read · Sun, May 13 2018 News statistics neuroscience brain science Mapping genetic influences on connections between neural networks could lead to a better understanding of brain organization and behavior. Exploring science's fourth paradigm 5 min read · Mon, May 7 2018 News computational and statistical interface big data The recent KAUST Research Conference: Computational and Statistical Interface to Big Data brought together leading computer science researchers and statistical experts to discuss the current state and future of data science. Held on campus from March 19 to 21, the conference covered such data science topics as succinct data representation and storage; big data visualization; parallel and distributed algorithms for inference and optimization; and analysis of large graphs and networks. March 2018 Zooming in on brain function 1 min read · Sun, Mar 18 2018 News statistics computing healthcare Faster computations will allow researchers to see the finer details of brain activity in functional brain imaging. November 2017 Diagnosing the impacts of health policy 1 min read · Sun, Nov 19 2017 News statistics earth science and engineering nursing Study design allows more rigorous evaluation of complex healthcare interventions. 2017 Workshop Modern Statistics for Complex Data Structures 1 min read · Sun, Nov 12 2017 Spotlight News statistics 2017 Workshop Modern Statistics for Complex Data Structures October 2015 2015 Workshop on Computational Space-Time Statistics 1 min read · Sun, Oct 4 2015 Spotlight News statistics spatio-temporal statistics Bayesian computational statistics Organizers : Prof. Marc G. Genton , Chair of Spatio-Temporal Statistics and Data Science Group Prof. Raphael Huser, Chair of Extreme Statistics Group Prof. Ying Sun, Chair of Environmental Statistics Group Confirmed speakers: Prof. Sudipto Banerjee, University of California Los Angeles, USA Prof. Souhaib Ben Taieb, Monash University, Australia Prof. Stefano Castruccio, Newcastle University, UK Prof. Miguel de Carvalho, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Clément Dombry, University of Franche-Comté , France Prof. Xuming He, University of Michigan, USA Prof. Hsin-Cheng Huang
CEMSE SRSI intern Safeer Ahmad earns second place at Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab Hackathon 3 min read · Sun, Jul 5 2026 Awards News Biostatistics data science AI digital health Safeer Ahmad's AI-powered NeuroDrive, developed through CEMSE research mentorship, earned second place among 2,040 participants from 41 countries at the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab Hackathon.
KAUST Ph.D. candidate Mara Sherlin Talento wins International Statistics Institute (ISI) Services Award 3 min read · Tue, Nov 25 2025 Awards News Biostatistics KAUST Ph.D. candidate Mara Sherlin Talento has received the International Statistics Institute (ISI) Services Award in recognition of her leadership, global outreach, and contributions to the development of young statisticians.
Top honors for KAUST extSTAT group at EVA 2023 2 min read · Wed, Sep 13 2023 Awards News KAUST extSTAT Research Group wins prestigious awards at EVA 2023 Conference in Milan.
Congratulations to Daniela for successfully defending her PhD thesis 1 min read · Mon, Sep 11 2023 Spotlight News Left: Daniela and three (out of four) committee members after her PhD defense, with Prof. Jorge Mateu (left), Daniela (center left), Prof. Raphaël Huser (center right), and Prof. Hernando Ombao (right). Prof. Matteo Parsani (not on the picture) was the last committee member. Right: picture taken after the defense, with Daniela (center) and Prof. Raphael Huser (in right corner holding his three kids).
KAUST STAT Program graduates secure faculty positions at prominent U.S. universities 7 min read · Wed, Apr 19 2023 News KAUST graduates are characterized by the rigor of their Ph.D. programs, the long hours spent in the lab and classroom, juggling professional and personal commitments, achieving a work-life balance and, more recently, the ability to adapt to a global pandemic.
Congratulations to Matheus for successfully defending his PhD thesis 1 min read · Tue, Apr 4 2023 Spotlight News Left: Mathues and the beging of his defense, with Matheus (front) and Prof. Raphaël (right). Right: picture taken after the defense, with Matheus (center) and Prof. Raphael Huser (in his left side).
KAUST Ph.D. student’s paper recognized by the American Statistical Association 2 min read · Mon, Mar 27 2023 News Spotlight KAUST Ph.D. statistics student Paolo Victor Redondo was selected as a runner-up in the American Statistical Association’s (ASA) Statistics in Imaging Section 2023 Distinguished Student Paper Award Competition
Extreme analysis of seizures 1 min read · Mon, Jun 27 2022 News neuroscience machine learning human health statistics CEMSE researchers Matheus Guerrero, Raphaël Huser and Hernando Ombao developed a new approach for analyzing seizures in epilepsy patients by applying extreme value theory to real EEG seizure data.
New paper accepted in Annals of Applied Statistics 1 min read · Wed, Mar 9 2022 Spotlight News New paper accepted: Guerrero, M. B., Huser, R., and Ombao, H. (2022+), Conex-Connect: Learning patterns in extremal brain connectivity from multi-channel EEG data, Annals of Applied Statistics, to appear [ PDF preprint].
Finding true protein hotspots in cancer research 1 min read · Wed, Dec 8 2021 News proteins statistics cancer human health Novel statistical methods help tell the difference between "false positives" and true detections of protein domain hotspots that could be linked to cancer.
Meet KAUST new student: Daniel Osorio Barreto 1 min read · Wed, Sep 1 2021 News Biostatistics macroeconomics Daniel Osorio Barreto, is an economics graduate who joined KAUST this fall from Universidad Autónoma de Manizales, Colombia. He is as a Ph.D. student and member of the KAUST Biostatistics Group under the supervision of Professor Hernando Ombao.
A brainwave from social networks 1 min read · Wed, Apr 14 2021 News neuroscience extreme computing statistics The statistics used to understand social networks reveal the diversity of functional connections in the brain.
KAUST STAT students come together for second ASA chapter meeting 2 min read · Thu, Dec 3 2020 News statistics data science Members of the KAUST American Statistical Association (ASA) student chapter recently came together for the group’s second online meeting held on Tuesday, November 10, 2020. The meeting served as an orientation exercise for new KAUST Statistics (STAT) Program students while also highlighting the shared experience of STAT Ph.D. candidates: Jian Cao, Wanfang Chen, Yuxiao Li, and Gaurav Agarwal.
Sci-Café on Statistics 1 min read · Mon, Nov 23 2020 News statistics Watch Sci-Café featuring panelists David Bolin, Hernando Ombao and Paula Moraga, with moderator Naadiya Carrim, by tuning in to the live Zoom feed, where you’ll be able to ask questions during the event, or by tuning in to the KAUST Official Facebook page or YouTube channel.
Today we celebrate World Statistics Day! 1 min read · Tue, Oct 20 2020 News statistics healthcare Let’s discover the world of the statisticians at KAUST and be ready to be amazed by their cutting-edge research!
A shock to the system 3 min read · Wed, Jul 22 2020 News Spectral Analysis numerical analysis COVID-19 research The global, multifarious challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic has scientists tapping their wide-ranging fields of expertise to attack the problem on many fronts. Answering the call from KAUST President Tony Chan, and coordinated by the University's leadership team, KAUST researchers making up the Rapid Research Response Team (R3T) are turning this crisis into an opportunity to innovate.
Unlocking coronavirus' secrets through cellphone data and social media 1 min read · Sun, Apr 12 2020 News Dr. Paula Moraga is part of a multidisciplinary KAUST research team that applies models to COVID-19. She has worked on projects examining malaria in Africa and leptospirosis in Brazil, and the models she develops rely on in-depth knowledge about each disease. "With malaria, for example, we know that it's transmitted by mosquitoes," said Moraga. "So, if some regions have a high density of mosquitoes, are close to bodies of water or have a lot of humidity, we know that we are going to probably see a high risk of this disease." Into the unknown In many places, malaria and leptospirosis
Epilepsy study shows the shape of things to come 1 min read · Sun, Jul 21 2019 News brain science bioscience statistics Pyramidal graphs resulting from statistical analyses of EEG recordings can improve our understanding of epileptic seizures.
Clustering helps unlock secrets of the human brain 1 min read · Sun, Mar 31 2019 News statistics brain science environmental science The latest statistical methods from research on complex high-dimensional environmental data also yield powerful tools for interpreting brain activity.
2018 Workshop on Statistics and Data Science 1 min read · Sat, Nov 10 2018 News statistics data analysis The Statistics Program at KAUST is proud to host the 2018 Workshop on Statistics and Data Science. This workshop gathers the leading experts on statistical data science to discuss the current needs, challenges and opportunities of modeling massive and high dimensional data, predicting complex biological and physical processes. The workshop will run from November 12-14. Talks and posters presentations will take place in Auditorium 0215 (between Buildings 4 & 5). Details on the workshop (speakers, abstracts and schedule) can be found here.
Stimulating deeper insights into brain function 1 min read · Thu, Oct 18 2018 News neuroscience statistics Modeling changes in brain activity over time provides deeper insights into learning and behavioral responses.
Connecting the dots to unlock brain structure 1 min read · Sun, May 13 2018 News statistics neuroscience brain science Mapping genetic influences on connections between neural networks could lead to a better understanding of brain organization and behavior.
Exploring science's fourth paradigm 5 min read · Mon, May 7 2018 News computational and statistical interface big data The recent KAUST Research Conference: Computational and Statistical Interface to Big Data brought together leading computer science researchers and statistical experts to discuss the current state and future of data science. Held on campus from March 19 to 21, the conference covered such data science topics as succinct data representation and storage; big data visualization; parallel and distributed algorithms for inference and optimization; and analysis of large graphs and networks.
Zooming in on brain function 1 min read · Sun, Mar 18 2018 News statistics computing healthcare Faster computations will allow researchers to see the finer details of brain activity in functional brain imaging.
Diagnosing the impacts of health policy 1 min read · Sun, Nov 19 2017 News statistics earth science and engineering nursing Study design allows more rigorous evaluation of complex healthcare interventions.
2017 Workshop Modern Statistics for Complex Data Structures 1 min read · Sun, Nov 12 2017 Spotlight News statistics 2017 Workshop Modern Statistics for Complex Data Structures
2015 Workshop on Computational Space-Time Statistics 1 min read · Sun, Oct 4 2015 Spotlight News statistics spatio-temporal statistics Bayesian computational statistics Organizers : Prof. Marc G. Genton , Chair of Spatio-Temporal Statistics and Data Science Group Prof. Raphael Huser, Chair of Extreme Statistics Group Prof. Ying Sun, Chair of Environmental Statistics Group Confirmed speakers: Prof. Sudipto Banerjee, University of California Los Angeles, USA Prof. Souhaib Ben Taieb, Monash University, Australia Prof. Stefano Castruccio, Newcastle University, UK Prof. Miguel de Carvalho, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Chile Prof. Clément Dombry, University of Franche-Comté , France Prof. Xuming He, University of Michigan, USA Prof. Hsin-Cheng Huang
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