Curriculum Vitae
Debjoy Thakur, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Ahmedabad University, India
Spatial Statistics · Statistical Learning · Spatial Extremes · High-Dimensional Modeling · Variational Inference
Contact & Academic Profiles
Office
GICT 220
Ahmedabad University
Ahmedabad, India
Academic Profiles
Research Interests
Academic Appointments
July 2026 – Present
Assistant Professor
Ahmedabad University, India
August 2023 – June 2026
Postdoctoral Lecturer
Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Research: Spatial variable selection, neural networks, and spatial extremes.
Mentor: Prof. Soumendra N. Lahiri
March 2023 – July 2023
Visiting Scientist
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India
Research: Backfitting and generalized additive models.
Mentor: Prof. Smarajit Bose
Education
2019 – 2023
Ph.D. in Statistics
Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, India
Dissertation:
Advancements of Space-Time Modeling in
Environmental Statistics
Specialization: Spatial Statistics
CGPA: 8.75
Supervisor: Prof. Ishapathik Das
2017 – 2019
M.Sc. in Statistics
Banaras Hindu University, India
Specialization: Statistics and Computing
CGPA: 8.11
2014 – 2017
B.Sc. in Statistics
University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India
Major: Statistics
Percentage: 59.5
Teaching Experience
| Semester | Course | Students | Median Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2023 | MATH 434 — Survival Analysis | 11 | 4.2 / 5 |
| Spring 2024 | MATH 439 — Linear Models | 44 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Spring 2024 | MATH 493 — Probability | 19 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Fall 2024 | SDS 434 — Survival Analysis | 8 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Spring 2025 | SDS 495 — Stochastic Process | 49 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Fall 2025 | SDS 4120/5120 — Survival Analysis | 22 | 4.5 / 5 |
| Spring 2026 | SDS 4070/5070 — Stochastic Process | 26 | 4.8 / 5 |
Selected Publications
- Thakur, D. (2026). “Variational Approximated Restricted Maximum Likelihood Estimation for Spatial Data.” Statistics and Probability Letters, accepted. Preprint
- Thakur, D., Das, I., & Chakravarty, S. (2023). “A spatial copula interpolation in a random field with application in air pollution data.” Modeling Earth System and Environment.
- Thakur, D., Bhattacharya, S., & Das, I. (2022). “Uni-variate and Bi-variate Inverted Exponential-Teissier Distribution in Bayesian and Non-Bayesian framework to Model Stochastic Dynamic Variation of Climate data.” Theoretical and Applied Climatology.
- Thakur, D. & Das, I. (2022). “Statistical assessment of Spatio-temporal impact of COVID-19 lockdown on air pollution using different modeling approaches in India, 2019–2020.” Regional Statistics.
View complete publication list →
Current & Submitted Research
- Thakur, D. & Lahiri, S. “Multi-Resolution Analysis of Variable Selection in Spatial Intensity Function for Risky Road in St. Louis.” Revised and resubmitted. Preprint
- Thakur, D., Zhao, L., & Bandyopadhyay, S. “Local Variable and Neighborhood Selection in Spatial Firearm Fatality in Southeastern USA.” Preprint
Research in Preparation
- Thakur, D. & Mateu, J. “Spatial Point Process for Noisy Locations on Riemannian Manifold.”
- Thakur, D., Das, I., & Bandyopadhyay, D. “Non-Gaussian Deep Neural Network: Application to Periodontal Health.”
- Thakur, D., Lahiri, S., Nychka, D., & Bandyopadhyay, S. “Fast Simulation of Spatial Stream Flow using Neural Network.”
- Thakur, D., Sidney, N., & Lahiri, S. “Local Variable Selection in Spatial Regression: Local LASSO.”
- Lahiri, S. & Thakur, D. “Ordinary Least-Square Based Spatial Variogram Estimation.”
- Thakur, D. “Local Spatial Deep Indicator Kriging for Non-Stationary Spatial Surface.” Submitted.
- Multi-Source Feature Selection for irregularly spaced spatial data.
Conference & Workshop Presentations
- Missouri ASA Statistics Day, 2025 — Multi-Resolution Analysis of Variable Selection in Spatial Intensity Function for Risky Road in St. Louis.
- EVA 2025 & CASE 2025 — Variable Selection in Spatial Regression: Local LASSO.
- Extremes 2024 — Threshold Exceedance Modeling for Spatial Extreme Data Using Neural Network.
- IISA 2022 — A spatial copula interpolation in a random field with application in air pollution data.
- MedGU 2022 — Geo-Spatial Cluster Based Hybrid Spatio-Temporal Copula Interpolation.
Invited Speaker, Session Chairing & Organization
- Statistics Colloquium Series, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2026
- Graduate Student Seminar, Washington University in St. Louis, 2026
- IISA 2025, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA
- IISA 2024, Cochin University of Science and Technology, India
- Extremes 2024, Colorado School of Mines, USA
Awards & Achievements
NSF Travel Award
EVA 2025
IISA Student Paper Competition
Finalist, 2022
GATE Statistics
All India Rank 21
INSPIRE DST Fellowship
2014–2018
Professional Service
Reviewer for journals including Spatial Statistics, Statistical Analysis and Data Mining, Statistics in Medicine, Environmetrics,and Sankhya A.
Technical Skills
- Statistical Computing: R, Python
- Scientific Writing: LaTeX, Overleaf
- Languages: English, Bengali, Hindi
Student Supervision
Xinyue Ha
Master's Student
Lyrian Zhao
Master's Student
Krisha Anant
Master's Practicum
Academic References
Prof. Ishapathik Das
Associate Professor
IIT Tirupati, India
Ph.D. Supervisor
Prof. Soumendra N. Lahiri
Professor of Statistics and Data Science
Washington University in St. Louis
Postdoctoral Research Mentor
Prof. José E. Figueroa-López
Professor of Statistics and Data Science
Washington University in St. Louis
Postdoctoral Teaching Mentor
Prof. Soutir Bandyopadhyay
Professor of Applied Mathematics and Statistics
Colorado School of Mines
Postdoctoral Research Collaborator
Complete Curriculum Vitae
The web version provides an overview of my academic background. For complete publication details, research activities, presentations, and professional information, please download the full CV.