About Nathan
My name is Nathan Yau, and I'm the one writing for FlowingData. In a previous life I was an electrical engineering and computer science student at Berkeley, but now I'm a UCLA PhD candidate in Statistics interested in data visualization. Data analysis is great and all, but for me visualization is just so appetizing, it's irresistible, and if done right, provides results for everyone -- not just the statisticians and/or scientists.
Plus, it's pretty.
More specifically, I'm most interested in
- social data visualization
- self-surveillance
- data sharing
The main idea of (1) is that it's possible to approach viz in a way that promotes a group of people (as opposed to the individual) to analyze a large data set. By self-surveillance, I mean I'm interested in the data that we are unintentionally producing and how we can make use of that stream. Finally, data sharing, well, that's self-explanatory.
Speaking of sharing -- I'm on Twitter, del.icio.us, and Facebook among the other usuals.
Yes, I'm everywhere, and although I'm a UCLA student, I currently live in Buffalo, New York where I slowly work on my dissertation (or at least I should be).
Why Buffalo?
My wife had to come here for work, for at least 3 years, and there was no way that I could live 2,000 miles away from her for so long. We already did long distance for a couple of years before getting married, and it's just no fun.
So here I am, instead, 2,000 miles away from school, my dissertation committee, and work. Luckily, for a lot of my research/work, all I need is a computer with an internet connection, and I'm good to go, but it'll be a challenge nonetheless working on my own.
Other than visualization for the endless amounts of information and data that flow around us, I also enjoy cooking, eating, and pretty much everything that has to do with food. My default TV channel -- The Food Network, of course. If only I had some time off to go to culinary school.
So that's me. I hope that gives you a good idea about where I'm coming from. If you're interested in data / visualization too, drop me a line, leave a comment. If you're not interested, let me know anyways, and maybe I can convince you.
Feel free to email me too.
