Biostatistics Department Service Milestones
Congratulations to the following faculty and staff members for reaching these service milestones at Vanderbilt University Medical Center:
| Name | Years at Vanderbilt University Medical Center |
| Yuwei Zhu, senior associate in biostatistics (See also Yuwei's 2019 Spotlight feature.) | 25 |
| Chiu-Lan "Heidi" Chen, research associate professor of biostatistics | 20 |
| Tebeb Gebretsadik, senior associate in biostatistics | 20 |
| Frank Harrell, professor of biostatistics | 20 |
| Tatsuki Koyama, professor of biostatistics | 20 |
| Lynne Berry, vice chair of informatics & collaborative programs | 15 |
| Zhiguo "Alex" Zhao, assistant in biostatistics | 15 |
| Sheau-Chiann Chen, research assistant professor of biostatistics | 10 |
| Liping Du, research assistant professor of biostatistics | 10 |
| Yaomin Xu, assistant professor of biostatistics and biomedical informatics | 10 |
| Shilin Zhao, assistant professor of biostatistics | 10 |
| Gustavo Amorim, assistant professor of biostatistics | 5 |
| Nicole Gunnison, business process manager | 5 |
| Andrew Spieker, assistant professor of biostatistics | 5 |
| Simon Vandekar, director of graduate recruitment | 5 |
| Jing Yang, research assistant professor of biostatistics | 5 |
Pictured left to right (foreground): Tatsuki Koyama, Alex Zhao, and Liping Du at our 20th anniversary poster session.
Celebrating International Day of Women in Statistics and Data Science
TOP ROW: senior associate Yuwei Zhu, PhD student Xinyu Zhang, PhD student Siwei Zhang, quality assurance analyst Vinni Yenukonda, professor Fei Ye, PhD student Elisa Yazdani, PhD student Lydia Yao, PhD student Teresa Yang, research assistant professor Jing Yang, PhD candidate Yan Yan
ROW 2: PhD student Bailu Lucy Yan, lead biostatistician Meng Xu, biostatistician Ke Xu, PhD student Jiangmei Ruby Xiong, research professor Pingsheng Wu, application developer Hui Wu, MS student Julia Whitman, PhD candidate Hannah Weeks, lead biostatistician Li Wang, research assistant professor Jing Wang, chief business officer Janey Wang
ROW 3: PhD candidate Shengxin Tu, PhD candidate Julia Thome, health services research analyst Afan Swan, biostatistician Yunyi Sun, PhD candidate Tianyi Sun, senior biostatistician Lili Sun, associate program manager Kayla Sullivan-Johnson, program manager Cierra Streeter, biostatistician Tess Stopczynski, biostatistician Ine Sohn, PhD student Kay Soga
ROW 4: adjunct professor Ayumi Shintani, lead biostatistician Yaping Shi, PhD student Lan Shi, PhD student Danni Shi, senior IT project manager Terri Scott, VN-BioStat fellow Safiya Sani, research assistant professor Laurie Samuels, biostatistician Paridhi Ranadive, statistical genetic analyst III Marisol Ramirez-Solano, associate professor Rameela Raman, senior biostatistician Heather Prigmore
ROW 5: associate Sharon Phillips, lead biostatistician Amy Perkins, research associate professor Jackie Pennings, application developer Savannah Obregon, assistant in biostatistics Hui Nian, PhD student Yunbi Nam, educational programs manager Chazlie Miller,senior biostatistician Elizabeth McNeer, associate biostatistician Cara Lwin, professor Qi Liu, assistant professor Jinyuan Liu
ROW 6: associate professor Dandan Liu, adjoint assistant professor Pei-Ying Emily Lin, biostatistician Vicky Liao, biostatistician Yajing Li, postdoc Jia Li, PhD student Lisa Levoir, senior program manager Jess Lai, PhD student Yeji Ko, PhD candidate Jamie Joseph, PhD student Megan Jones
ROW 7: biostatistician Cass Johnson, biostatistician Xiangyu Ji, lead biostatistician Cathy Jenkins, biostatistician Rebecca Irlmeier, research assistant professor Li-Ching Huang, senior financial analyst Sandra Hewston, senior biostatistician Cassie Hennessy, MS student Megan Hall, assistant professor Amber Hackstadt, business process manager Nicole Gunnison
ROW 8: senior associate Tebeb Gebretsadik, senior biostatistician Yue Gao, PhD student Alexis Fleming, research professor Irene Feurer, senior biostatistician Xiaoke Sarah Feng, principal biostatistician Run Fan, health services research analyst Andrea Elhajj, research assistant professor Svetlana Eden, senior program manager Peg Duthie, research assistant professor Liping Du, professor Mary Dietrich
ROW 9: associate program manager Margaret Cullum, grants manager Pattie Council, vice chair of diversity and inclusion Leena Choi, research assistant professor Sheau-Chiann Chen, vice chair of education Qingxia Cindy Chen, research associate professor Heidi Chen, visiting research scholar Charlene Chang, PhD student Marisa Blackman, biostatistician Caroline Birdrow, project manager Heather Bickham
ROW 10: principal biostatistician, Aihua Bian vice chair of informatics and collaborative programs Lynne Berry, postdoc Leila Azinfar, assistant to the chair Jena Altstatt, VN-Biostat Fellow Rukayya Alkassim, health services research analyst Onika Abrams
Celebrating our current postdocs
In observance of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, we thank our two current postdoctoral research fellows for their contributions to our department.
Jia Li (left) previously studied at Xiamen University and Shanghai Technology University as well as the German Heart Centre in Munich before joining our department four years ago. Her projects have included working on a single-cell multi-resolution marker-based annotation method (scMRMA), a single-cell and spatial transcriptomic clustering method (aKNNO), and single-cell analysis of Crohn's disease. Her accomplishments include a first-authored paper on scMRMA in Nucleic Acids Research.
Leila Azinfar (right) joined our department in April with a PhD in bioengineering from Missouri and master's degrees from Shaheed Behest University of Medical Sciences (biomedical engineering) and Amirkabir University of Technology (radiological systems engineering). At Vanderbilt, she works with Amir Asiaee, primarily on the causal effect estimation of regulatory molecules. Her publications include a first-authored paper on high-resolution imaging in the Journal of Biophotonics.
Vanderbilt Biostatistics to host ASA traveling short course
On October 20, we will host the short course “From R Markdown to Quarto” with the Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Statistical Association (ASA). This one-day course is designed for those who want to take their R Markdown skills and expertise and apply them in Quarto, the next generation of R Markdown. Quarto is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system that offers multilingual programming language support to create dynamic and static documents, books, presentations, blogs, and other online resources. The course will be taught by Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, professor of the practice of statistical science at Duke University. It will be held in Light Hall from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. See the course webpage for details and registration.
Members of the Middle Tennessee chapter of the ASA receive discounted registration. The cost is $70 for student members; $90 for student non-members; $140 for non-student members; and $180 for non-student non-members. Visit the ASA Chapters page to join or renew your membership.
Assistant professor and director of graduate recruitment Simon Vandekar is the president of the ASA's Middle Tennessee chapter. Other chapter officers from our department include assistant professor Amber Hackstadt, associate professor Robert Johnson, and associate professor Rameela Raman.
