2011 Harvard Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics

The Department of Biostatistics is delighted to announce that Dr. Phil Lavori, Professor (Biostatistics) in the Department of Health Research and Policy at Stanford University, is this year's recipient of the Harvard Award in Psychiatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics. The award recognizes Professor Lavori's lifelong career contributions that have significantly advanced the field of Psychiatric Biostatistics. Professor Lavori will present the award lecture at the Harvard School of Public Health on Wednesday, April 11, 2012.

Brian Claggett Wins Student Award Honoring Dr. Stephen Lagakos

The department is proud to announce that doctoral student Brian Claggett won a student award to be given in honor of the late Dr. Stephen Lagakos. This award is supported by the Frontier Science Foundation Hellas. Brian will receive his award, and give a talk at the 6th Eastern Mediterranean Region - International Biometric Society (EMR-IBS) Conference to held in Hersonissos, Crete in May 2011. Congratulations, Brian!

Nan Laird Wins 2011 Samuel S. Wilks Award

The department is delighted to announce that Dr. Nan Laird is the American Statistical Association's 2011 Samuel S. Wilks Award Winner. The Wilks Memorial Award is bestowed upon a distinguished individual who has made statistical contributions to the advancement of scientific or technical knowledge, ingenious application of existing knowledge, or successful activity in the fostering of cooperative scientific efforts that have been directly involved in matters of national defense or public interest. She joins Dr. Marvin Zelen and Dr. L.J. Wei in receiving this prestigious and well-deserved honor. We are indeed fortunate to have such noteworthy scholars in our department. Congratulations, Nan!

Tianxi Cai Elected Fellow of ASA

Dr. Tianxi Cai has been elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association. The awards ceremony for new fellows will be held during the Joint Statistical Meetings in August 2011. Congratulations to Tianxi for this well deserved honor.

2011 HSPH-Merck Workshop

Effective Implementation of Data Monitoring for Clinical Trials Sponsored by Industry
May 19-20, 2011

In the past few years, many novel designs and statistical methods have been proposed for accelerating the evaluation of new therapies. Implementation of these methods, however, presents new challenges that may be difficult to address within the framework of current policies and practices governing the activities of Data Monitoring Committees. To avoid concerns about conflict of interest, for example, industry sponsors typically retain an independent statistical group to perform interim analyses and communicate with the Data Monitoring Committee (DMC). The DMC takes responsibility for important "risk - benefit" decisions, usually with limited input from the sponsor. This situation can constrain, perhaps excessively, the information available to DMC members about the role of an individual clinical trial within the sponsor's drug development program. Moreover, limitation of the time commitments of DMC members reduces their capacity for the type of in-depth investigations that may be needed for adequate response to complex issues that emerge during a study. Despite the potential for sub-optimal decisions arising from limited information and commitment, all parties are extremely cautious about initiating substantive communication. These constraints may be a factor in the frequent termination of clinical trials for futility, and become much more significant when studies employ data-dependent adaptive designs.

This year’s workshop will review current policies and practices determining the conduct of Data Monitoring Committees and discuss several proposals from industry, government, and academia for addressing the concerns raised above.

Layla Parast Wins 2011 IBM Student Award at NESS

The department is proud to announce that doctoral student Layla Parast won a 2011 IBM Student Award. Her award winning paper is entitled "Landmark Prediction of Long Term Survival Incorporating Short Term Event Time Information", and her advisor is Dr. Tianxi Cai. The award was given to Layla at The 25th New England Statistics Symposium on Saturday, April 16, 2011. Congratulations to Layla for a much deserved award!

Dave Zhao, Jessica Minnier, and Layla Parast Win 2011 ASA Biometrics Section Travel Awards

The department is proud to announce that doctoral students Dave Zhao, Jessica Minnier, and Layla Parast are winners of 2011 ASA Biometrics Section Travel Awards. A cash award in the amount of $800 will accompany the award. Dave's winning paper (co-authored with Dr. Yi Li) is entitled "Grouped Variable Selection via Hierarchical Models". Jessica's winning paper (co-authored with Dr. Tianxi Cai) is entitled "Risk Classification with an Adaptive Naive Bayes Kernel Machine Model". Layla's winning paper (co-authored with Dr. Tianxi Cai) is entitled "Landmark Prediction of Long Term Survival Incorporating Short Term Event Time Information". Dave, Jessica, and Layla will be recognized for their achievements at the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings in Miami at the Biometrics Section Mixer and Business Meeting on August 1st. Hearty congratulations to Dave, Jessica, and Layla!

Miguel Marino Wins Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Department would like to congratulate doctoral student Miguel Marino on winning one of the Yerby Postdoctoral Fellowships given by the Harvard School of Public Health.

Named for Dr. Alonzo Smythe Yerby, an African-American pioneer in public health, this initiative is geared toward expanding the diversity of those entering academic public health. The program creates a bridge between academic training in health-related disciplines and entry-level faculty positions at institutions throughout the United States.

The goal of the program is to advance the intellectual and professional development of each Yerby fellow. Under the guidance of a senior HSPH faculty member with compatible interests, fellows develop their research agendas, gain experience in publishing papers in peer-reviewed journals and obtaining grant support, participate in a variety of professional development workshops, and increase their teaching expertise.

Congratulations, Miguel, on this well-deserved honor!

Master's Program Alumnus Miles Ott Wins Award

Miles Otts wins $3500 award to travel to South Africa this summer. This award is presented by the Framework for Global Health Program whose objective is to "stimulate students and faculty to engage in multi/interdisciplinary global health activities." The Framework, supported by an educational grant from the Fogarty International Center at the U.S. National Institutes of Health sponsors the Global Health Scholarship program at Brown University, a twice-yearly opportunity to secure funding for a summer global health project, as well as to engage in a structured program in support of the student's global health experience.

Originally posted at Brown University where Miles is a current doctoral student.

2011 ENAR Distinguished Paper Award

Doctoral student Jessica Minnier has been selected to receive one of the International Biometric Society’s Eastern North American Region (ENAR) Distinguished Student Paper Awards for the 2011 ENAR Spring Meetings in Miami, Florida. The award recognizes her excellent paper entitled: Risk Classification with an Adaptive Naive Bayes Kernel Machine Model. Congratulations to Jessica!

2011 Distinguished Alum Award

The Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health has named Manning Feinleib, M.D., Dr.P.H., of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the Department of Epidemiology, as the recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Alum Award. Dr. Feinleib graduated from Harvard School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics in 1966 with his Dr.P.H. Dr. Feinleib is Professor Emeritus at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He will present a lecture during the fall of the 2011-2012 academic year at the Harvard School of Public Health. The lecture date will be announced once determined.

Coull Elected Fellow of ASA

Dr. Brent Coull has been elected as a fellow of the American Statistical Association. The awards ceremony for new fellows was held during the Joint Statistical Meetings in August 2010. Congratulations to Brent for this well deserved honor.

Doctoral Student Wins 2010 American Public Health Association Best Student Paper Award

Doctoral student Miguel Marino was a winner of the 2010 American Public Health Association (APHA) Best Student Paper Award. Miguel's award winning paper was coauthored with his advisor Yi Li and is titled "Statistical Inference for Factor Analysis when p>n". Miguel received his award in the November 2010 APHA meetings in Denver, CO. Congratulations to Miguel!

Alumnus John McGready Honored for His Teaching

In a quote from Johns Hopkins Public Health: "In 11 years of teaching biostatistics, John McGready, PhD, has accumulated enough teaching awards to make a shelf sag. The assistant scientist treasures a 2008 handcrafted trophy from students for being the “Most Statistically Significant.” Then there is his hat trick of Golden Apples, a prestigious School teaching accolade, awarded in 2001, 2004 and 2008, and twice he’s received the School’s Excellence in Online Teaching Award. This August, he received the Outstanding Teaching Award presented by the American Statistical Association’s Section on Teaching Statistics in the Health Sciences. And, in September, he won the ASPH/Pfizer Early Career in Public Health Teaching Award. Incalculable, however, is the gratitude of more than a thousand students whom McGready has shepherded through what may have seemed, for some, the dark valley of statistical reasoning—had it not been for his dedication and electric enthusiasm."  Congratulations, John, for this well-deserved recognition!

2010 Distinguished Alum Award

The Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health has named Dr. Daniel Scharfstein, Professor and Director, Graduate Program in Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, recipient of the 2010 Distinguished Alum Award. Dr. Scharfstein will deliver a lecture on February 10, 2010 at Harvard University. The lecture title will be announced. The lecture will be held in FXB G12 at 4:00 PM.

In Memory of Stephen Lagakos: New England Journal of Medicine

On October 22, 2010 there was a one day Symposium held in the Harvard Medical Area in memory of Stephen Lagakos. One of the papers presented was by Dr. Gregory Curfman, Executive Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine. It described Steve Lagakos' activities at the NEJM. For the benefit of those not able to be present at the Symposium, we are reproducing Dr. Curfman's presentation with his permission. Please click on the this link.

Biostatistics Alumnus Dr. Nicholas Horton Awarded for Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Nicholas Horton '99, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Smith College was named as one of the 2010 recipients of the Kathleen Compton Sherrerd ’54 and John J. F. Sherrerd Prizes for Distinguished Teaching. The Sherrerd Prize is given annually to Smith faculty members in recognition of their distinguished teaching records and demonstrated enthusiasm and excellence. See the video here.

Department Welcomes Our Incoming Class

The incoming class to the Department of Biostatistics consists of 26 students. Of the twenty-six new students, 14 are enrolled in our Ph.D. doctoral program, 1 in the special student program, and 11 in our Master's program. Of these new degree students, 17 are U.S. citizens or permanent residents and 9 are international students. There are 9 women and 17 men, and their prior degrees are distributed as follows (1 MD, 1 PhD, 11 have a prior Master's degree, 13 enter with Bachelor's degrees). The Department welcomes the new students to our program and wishes them every success during their stay with us and beyond.

The New Faces - (left to right - back to front)) (Upper left corner)Tristan Hayeck, Kevin Harris, Yered Pita Juarez, Matey Neykov, Stacey Ackerman-Alexeeff, Ritesh Ramchandani, Jaclyn Scholl, Florence Yong. (Upper right corner) Ian Barnett, Hyunggyu Park, Xiaopeng Cai, Florence Yong, Alex Grigorenko, Paula Moraga-Serrano, Matt Cefalu, Stacey Ackerman-Alexeeff, Jaclyn Scholl, Krista Watts, Tristan Hayeck, Elizabeth Smoot, Alice Wong. (Lower left corner) Denis Agniel, Matt Cefalu, Adam Sullivan, Jia Weng, Hyunggyu Park, Paula Moraga-Serrano, Hasmik Alvrtsyan, Caleb Miles, Elizabeth Smoot, Alex Grigorenko, Alice Wong. (Inset) Jia Weng, Ankit Rastogi. (Lower right corner) Jia Weng, Hyunggyu Park, Paula Moraga-Serrano, Hasmik Alvrtsyan, Amy Johnson Graves, Xiaopeng Cai, Adam Sullivan, Alex Grigorenko, Alice Wong, Vagheesh Narasimhan, Matt Cefalu, Elizabeth Smoot. (Missing: Mahmut Edip Gurol)

You may view a set of pictures of the incoming class taken from the 2010-2011 Photo Directory (internal only) here.

Jean Nachega, Former McGoldrick Fellow, Lead Author in HIV Study

When applied to HIV care, the community-based model of directly observed therapy (DOT) has no effect on virologic outcomes, but significantly improves patient survival, according to a study lead by Jean Nachega, a former McGoldrick Fellow in the Department of Biostatistics. Dr. Nachega is an associate scientist in the Bloomberg School’s Department of International Health, and a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Infectious disease at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Nachega contacted our department, and stated, "My training as McGoldrick Fellow helped me to conduct some of the data analyses reported in this manuscript. My special thought goes to Professor Steve Lagakos with whom I used to discuss some of these analyses and I dedicate this work in his memory."

Dave Zhao Wins 2010 ASA Biopharmaceutical Student Paper Award

The department is proud to announce that doctoral student Dave Zhao is the 1st place "2010 ASA Biopharmaceutical Student Paper Award" winner! A cash award in the amount of $1000 will accompany the award. Dave's prize winning paper (co-authored with Dr. Yi Li) is entitled "Principled Sure Independence Screening for Cox Models with Ultra-High-Dimensional Covariates". Dave will be recognized for his achievement at the ASA Biopharmaceutical Section Annual Business Meeting and Mixer, 5:30 - 7:00 pm, on Tuesday, August 3rd, in Vancouver, Canada. Congratulations to Dave!

2010 Myrto Lefkopoulou Distinguished Lectureship Announcement

The Department is delighted to announce that Dr. David B. Dunson, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Statistical Science, Duke University, will be this year's recipient of the Myrto Lefkopoulou Distinguished Lectureship. Professor Dunson will present this lecture at the Department of Biostatistics on September 23, 2010. The lecture will be followed by a reception.

Team Biostats 2010 AIDS Walk

Congrats to team Harvard Biostats for their successful participation in this year’s AIDS Walk. With 60+ members, the team raised over $7000, ranking 9th of all teams participating in the walk. The team gives sincere thanks to the Biostats Department, CBAR, faculty, staff, students, family and friends for their support!


Pictures of the team at the walk can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/fiamh/sets/72157624249069946/ .

Congratulations Graduates!

The Department of Biostatistics would like to offer their congratulations and best wishes to our students who graduated in the 2010 Spring Commencement ceremony. Receiving a Doctorate of Philosophy degree were Keith Betts, Lee Dicker, Caroline Jeffery, Sharon Lutz, Casey Olives, and Loni Philip. Receiving a Master of Science degree were Dana Berry, Jang Ik Cho, Brian Gluck, Yared Gurmu, Hwanhee Hong, Brendan Keenan, Anthony Jinho Lee, Gavin Miyasato, Hwee Pin Phua, Lingling Shen, and Yifan Zhang. Kaustubh Adhikari, Danielle Braun, Andrew Correia, Wei Dai, Lee Dicker, Ravi Goyal, Norman Huang, Xinyi Lin, Peter Lipman, Dandi Qiao, Brian Sharkey, Jennifer Sinnott, Tamar Sofer, and Linda Valeri received Master of Arts degrees. We wish our graduates much success in the future!

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Doctoral Students win 2010 ICSA Distinguished Paper Awards

Doctoral students Miguel Marino and Dave Zhao have won the 2010 International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) Distinguished Paper Awards. Miguel's award winning paper is entitled "Inference of Factor Analysis with Large p and Small n: understanding the change patterns of the US cancer mortality rates", and Dave's is entitled "Principled Sure Independence Screening for Cox Models with Ultra-High-Dimensional Covariates". They coauthored their papers with Dr. Yi Li, their dissertation advisor. They will present the papers and receive the prize in the 19th annual ICSA Applied Statistics Symposium in Indianapolis, IN, in June 2010. Congratulations to Miguel and Dave!

Dr. Kenneth Stanley Retires

Here are a few photos from the retirement party hosted by the Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics, and Frontier Science & Technology Research Foundation in May 2010 for Dr. Kenneth Stanley who will retire this summer.

Parast wins IMS Laha Travel Award, and Cox Scholarship Honorable Mention

Doctoral student Layla Parast has been selected to receive an Institute of Mathematical Statistics Laha Travel Award to attend the 2010 IMS Annual Meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, August 9-13, 2010. The Laha Award recipients will be welcomed and honored at the Presidential Address on the evening of Tuesday, August 10. Winners will be highlighted in the IMS Bulletin.

Layla also received honorable mention status in the 2010 Gertrude M. Cox Scholarship awards. Those awarded honorable mention status will be recognized at an award ceremony on Tuesday, August 3, 2010, at 8:00 p.m. in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada at the Vancouver Convention Center during the Joint Statistical Meetings.

Congratulations to Layla for her well-deserved honors!

The HSPH Merck Workshop for 2010

The HSPH Merck Workshop will be held on May 20 and 21, 2010, at the Harvard School of Public Health. It will focus on Vaccines and the Control of Disease and will bring together experts from academia, regulatory agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry to exchange ideas on how to assess the current status of, and future directions for, vaccine research and development; consider alternative and combined approaches to the prevention and control of communicable diseases; and discuss related regulatory and public health issues.

NESS Best Student Paper Award Winners

Doctoral students Keith Betts and Dave Zhao have won Best Student Paper Awards for the 2010 New England Statistics Symposium (NESS). Keith's paper is entitled "Robust Survival Prediction via Linear Transformation Models". Dave's paper is entitled "Principled Sure Independence Screening for Cox Models with Ultra-High-Dimensional Covariates". They received their awards in the April 2010 meeting in Boston, MA. Congratulations to Keith and Dave!

Team Harvard-Biostats in the 2010 AIDS Walk and Run

On June 6, students, faculty and staff of the Biostatistics Department and the Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research will participate in the 2010 annual Boston AIDS Walk. In addition to raising money for the AIDS Action Committee of Boston, participants hope to increase awareness and support for people infected and affected with HIV in our community. Last year, the 50+ team members raised over $6,000 for the cause. As always, we hope that this year we will have more participants and raise even more money!

To make a donation, please visit the Team Harvard-Biostats website at http://blog.aac.org/aidswalk/index.php/2010/04/09/why-team-harvard-biostats-walks/.

Please contact Ashley (buchanan@sdac.harvard.edu) and Lisa (laaron@sdac.harvard.edu) at CBAR, or Bethany (bhedt@hsph.harvard.edu) and Ravi (rgoyal@hsph.harvard.edu) at Biostats for more information.