Francesca Dominici's Faculty Website

Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science
Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative
Director of the National Studies on Air Pollution and Health Group
Principal Investigator of the BUSPH-HSPH Climate Change and Health Research Coordinating Center (CAFE)

Additional Information

Dr. Francesca Dominici is Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Data Science Initiative at Harvard University. She was recruited to the Harvard Chan School as a tenured Professor of Biostatistics in 2009. She was appointed Associate Dean of Information Technology in 2011 and Senior Associate Dean for Research in 2013.

For a detailed overview of Dr. Dominici’s academic and professional contributions, read her extended bio.

Learn More about CAFE here!
New center aims to spur research on climate change and health
Francesca Dominici & David Parkes named co-directors of Data Science Initiative
Data science for a new era: A Q&A with co-directors of emerging Data Science Initiative
Harvard plans significant Data Science Institute

Leadership

In her current role as co-director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, Dr. Dominici is building on the collaborations that already exist across the University to foster a rich and cohesive data science community, bringing together scholars from across disciplines and schools. In addition to carrying out the academic plan of the initiative, she oversees the operations and distribution of seed funding and helps to raise funds to support its key programmatic activities.

Dr. Dominici is also the founder and the lead PI for the National Studies on Air Pollution and Health Group (NSAPH), which is a group of faculty, research scientists, post-doctoral fellows, graduate students, and college students studying data science methodologies in the context of climate change, environmental impacts on health outcomes, and regulatory policy. The group has over 100 members and includes 25 Principal Investigators & Faculty over 12 institutions.

Dr. Dominici is also one of the lead PIs for the BUSPH-HSPH Climate Change and Health Research Coordinating Center, CAFÉ. The CAFÉ is a three-year cooperative agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a critical component of the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative to manage and support ongoing climate change and health research and capacity building efforts.

In her past role as Senior Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Dominici led advancements to optimize the health of the Harvard Chan School’s research enterprise. She oversaw the School’s Office of Research Strategy and Development (ORSD) and led ORSD’s flagship faculty grant-writing short course. In addition to her own extensive research program, as Senior Associate Dean for Research, Dr. Dominici provided scientific leadership in the submission of numerous proposals designed to advance the School’s and University’s scientific innovation.

In her role as Associate Dean of Information Technology, Dr. Dominici led new initiatives to improve the research computing infrastructure at the Harvard Chan School. Dr. Dominici worked closely with the senior leadership at the School of Public Health and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) to execute a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to allow Chan School faculty, researchers, staff, and students to access the FAS Research Computing environment (Odyssey). Odyssey is Harvard’s largest supercomputer, spanning three data centers for a total of 9,641 square feet dedicated to compute. Access to this state-of-the-art computing cluster has transformed the research computing landscape at the Chan School, positioning the School at the forefront of the Big Data revolution and allowing Chan School faculty to pursue Big Data driven research that is pushing the frontiers of science.

Diversity

In addition to her research interests and administrative leadership roles, Dr. Dominici has demonstrated a career-long commitment to promoting diversity in academia. She is the current chair of the Committee for the Advancement of Women Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.