Taehyun Jung

During his two years with the paramedic service South Korea (an alternative to the country’s mandatory military service) Taehyun Jung was struck by how much hopelessness he witnessed among his countrymen. Through biostatistics, he hopes to make a different kind of contribution to the world.

Now in the Master of Science program, he is particularly interested in longitudinal studies and clinical trials. An undergraduate statistics major, Taehyun enjoys searching the literature for new methods and using different approaches to data sets. He appreciates how accessible and willing the YSPH faculty is to discuss new ideas and answer questions. “In Korea,” says Taehyun, “It is difficult to ask professors questions directly. I was shocked at the faculty’s openness here.”

As a research assistant at the Yale Center for Analytic Sciences, led by Professors Peter Peduzzi and James Dziura, Taehyun has worked on several studies that have given him deeper exposure and experience with study design and statistical programming.

For his thesis project, “Alleviating attrition bias due to non-ignorable dropouts in longitudinal studies by instrumental variables,” he is applying the concept of instrumental variables commonly used in economics to public health.