Nima Hejazi
Primary Faculty

Nima Hejazi

Assistant Professor of Biostatistics

Biostatistics

nhejazi@hsph.harvard.edu


Overview

Dr. Hejazi's research interests concentrate in causal inference and statistical machine learning (or "causal machine learning"), focusing on the development of efficient, model-agnostic methods for statistical inference. This approach stresses the techniques that are (1) robust, by leveraging data-adaptive and flexible modern regression (i.e., machine learning) procedures; (2) statistically efficient (i.e., with minimal variance), by applying cutting-edge semi-parametric efficiency theory; and (3) assumption-lean, by incorporating domain knowledge where available while also respecting its limitations. His problem-first, translational philosophy emphasizes tailoring inferential statistical methods to concrete, well-scoped scientific questions (often as estimands defined via causal inference), thereby ensuring that statistical methods contribute directly to expanding scientific knowledge in an actionable manner. Dr. Hejazi is often motivated by topics from non- and semi-parametric inference and efficiency theory; high-dimensional inference; (targeted) minimum loss-based estimation; biased sampling designs, especially outcome-dependent two-phase designs (e.g., case-control studies); and sequentially adaptive trials or experiments. Most often, he studies these topics through the lens of causal inference, which formalizes scientific inquiries as statistical parameters amenable to causal interpretations (e.g., heterogeneous treatment effects, dose-response curves, mediational direct/indirect effects). Dr. Hejazi is also deeply interested in high-performance statistical computing and is a passionate advocate for open-source software and the critical role it plays in the promotion of transparency, reproducibility, and "data analytic hygiene" in the practice of applied statistics and statistical data science.

Dr. Hejazi's substantive scientific interests span diverse areas of the biomedical and public health sciences, and he has participated in scientific collaborations across a broad array of disciplines, including molecular and environmental toxicology, large-scale interventional nutritional epidemiology, comparative (health) effectiveness research using electronic health/medical records, and computational/high-dimensional biology. Most recently, he has been captivated by the rich statistical issues and pressing public health challenges common in clinical trials and/or observational studies evaluating the efficacy of preventive vaccines or curatives/therapeutics for high-burden infectious diseases (HIV/AIDS, COVID-19), in infectious disease epidemiology, and in computational immunology.

"Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than the exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise." --John Tukey

"Everyone is sure of this [that errors are normally distributed]...since the experimentalists believe that it is a mathematical theorem, and the mathematicians that it is an experimentally determined fact." --Henri Poincare

BA, 2015, Molecular & Cell Biology, Psychology, Public Health
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

MA, 2017, Biostatistics
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

PhD, 2021, Biostatistics
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2022, Biostatistics, Causal Inference, Machine Learning
Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA

NSF Mathematical Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowship2021-2022
National Science Foundation

The Wallace Lowe Fellowship2020-2020
UC Berkeley School of Public Health

The Eki & Nobuta Akahoshi and Seiko Baba Brodbeck Endowed Fund Scholarship2019-2019
UC Berkeley School of Public Health

Tom Ten Have Memorial Award (for "exceptionally creative or skillful research in causal inference")2019-2019
American Causal Inference Conference

The Wellness Scholarship in Honor of Chin Long Chiang2018-2018
UC Berkeley School of Public Health


Bibliography

Stochastic Interventional Vaccine Efficacy and Principal Surrogate Analyses of Antibody Markers as Correlates of Protection against Symptomatic COVID-19 in the COVE mRNA-1273 Trial.

Huang Y, Hejazi NS, Blette B, Carpp LN, Benkeser D, Montefiori DC, McDermott AB, Fong Y, Janes HE, Deng W, Zhou H, Houchens CR, Martins K, Jayashankar L, Flach B, Lin BC, O'Connell S, McDanal C, Eaton A, Sarzotti-Kelsoe M, Lu Y, Yu C, Kenny A, Carone M, Huynh C, Miller J, El Sahly HM, Baden LR, Jackson LA, Campbell TB, Clark J, Andrasik MP, Kublin JG, Corey L, Neuzil KM, Pajon R, Follmann D, Donis RO, Koup RA, Gilbert PB.

Viruses. 2023 09 29. 15(10). PMID: 37896806

Comparing antibody assays as correlates of protection against COVID-19 in the COVE mRNA-1273 vaccine efficacy trial.

Benkeser D, Montefiori DC, McDermott AB, Fong Y, Janes HE, Deng W, Zhou H, Houchens CR, Martins K, Jayashankar L, Castellino F, Flach B, Lin BC, O'Connell S, McDanal C, Eaton A, Sarzotti-Kelsoe M, Lu Y, Yu C, Borate B, van der Laan LWP, Hejazi NS, Kenny A, Carone M, Williamson BD, Garver J, Altonen E, Rudge T, Huynh C, Miller J, El Sahly HM, Baden LR, Frey S, Malkin E, Spector SA, Andrasik MP, Kublin JG, Corey L, Neuzil KM, Carpp LN, Pajon R, Follmann D, Donis RO, Koup RA, Gilbert PB.

Sci Transl Med. 2023 04 19. 15(692):eade9078. PMID: 37075127