Daniel Naiman is a professor of applied mathematics and statistics, where he serves as director of graduate studies and director of the Financial Mathematics MSE Program, which he was instrumental in creating. He specializes in statistics, computational probability, and bioinformatics, developing methods and tools to analyze complex biological data.
Naiman researches various areas of statistical application, including genetics, bioinformatics, and analysis of environmental data as it relates to human-health risk assessment. With support from the National Science Foundation, he has developed a series of inferential statistical methods as well as geometric tools to advance computational statistical theory and methodology. In 1997, he was elected a Fellow of the Institute for Mathematical Statistics for “consistently deep and seminal contributions in the interface of statistics, geometry and combinatorics, and for development of and synthesis of fundamental approaches using geometry.”
Naiman’s early research sat at the crossroads of geometry, computing, and applied statistics, focusing on the problem of p-value computation in multiple testing. These investigations led to methodology-extending tools in differential geometry—in particular, the Hotelling-Weyl tube formula. Additionally, Naiman co-developed a theory of abstract tubes, in which special geometric structure in statistical models can be exploited to provide improved inclusion-exclusion identities, as well as efficient importance sampling computational methods. Ultimately, the research led to a formulation now referred to as Naiman’s Inequality.
In 2016, as part of a national effort to teach STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), Naiman, who plays saxophone and electric bass, created a summer course, Mathematics of Music, to entice students who might not otherwise be drawn to math. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the Professor Joel Dean Award for Excellence in Teaching (2018) and the Hopkins Undergraduate Society for Applied Mathematics and Statistics Teaching Award (2016). Most recently, he received the 2019 William H. Huggins Excellence in Teaching Award, which recognizes outstanding teaching and a demonstrated dedication to students in the Whiting School of Engineering.
Naiman served as chair of his department from 2004 to 2014. He has authored more than 70 publications in refereed journals and is co-author of two books, Assessing Inequality (2010) and Quantile Regression (2007), both published by SAGE Publications.
Naiman received an AB in Mathematics from Cornell University in 1977 (summa cum laude). He earned an MS in Statistics and a PhD in Mathematics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1979 and 1982, respectively.