Blog

We have reached the midway point of this year's Internship Program for Underrepresented Undergraduates and are very much looking forward to the posters these emerging researchers will present at the close of their studies with us. See our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion page for more about our efforts to promote accessibility and representation in our field, and our Graduate Program section for more about our MS and PhD tracks.

For a screen reader–compatible version of the above image, see the directory page for the 2023 cohort, which also acknowledges  faculty and staff contributions towards making this year's program a success.

The 2023 Statistical Methods in Imaging Conference took place this week in Minneapolis. Investigators and students from around the country gathered to discuss and share their work in the field of imaging science. We are proud of our department members who presented at the conference. They include the following:

Monday, May 22

PhD student Jiangmei “Ruby” Xiong presented a poster for “Application of Closed-Form Gamma Mixture Model in mxIF Cell Gating.” Assistant professor Simon Vandekar co-authored the poster.

Tuesday, May 23

Simon Vandekar was an organizer for the invited session “New Statistical Methods to Improve the Spatial-Omics Analysis Pipeline.”

Simon was also a session organizer for “Collaborative Case Study: Statistical Methods and Findings from Large Consortia Studies.” PhD student Kaidi Kang was an invited speaker in the session and presented “Study Features Impacting Replicability of Brain-wide Association Studies.”

Assistant professor Panpan Zhang was an invited speaker in the session “Recent Advances in Neuroimaging Statistics for Investigating Human Brain Function.” He presented “A Bayesian Model for Link Prediction in Functional Brain Networks.”

Wednesday, May 24

Ruby Xiong was a session organizer for “Recent Advances in Spatial Analysis of Single-Cell Imaging.” Assistant professor Siyuan Ma was an invited speaker during this session and presented “A Flexible Generalized Linear Mixed Effects Model for Testing Cell-Cell Colocalization in Spatial Immunofluorescent Data.”

Congratulations to everyone!

For the first time since 2019, the Center for Quantitative Sciences will host its annual Summer Institute in person, with four weeklong courses held on the Vanderbilt University campus, at 2525 West End Avenue. This year’s offerings include a brand-new course on the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program, a large-scale initiative with the mission of building “one of the most diverse health databases in history.” Vanderbilt graduate and All of Us CEO Josh Denny, MD, was a founding director of Vanderbilt’s Center for Precision Medicine and a longtime collaborator with course directors Paul Harris, PhD, and Qingxia “Cindy” Chen, PhD. Harris, professor of biomedical informatics, biomedical engineering, and biostatistics, is the creator of REDCap and ResearchMatch and principal investigator of All of Us’s Data and Research Center (DRC). Chen, whose roles include vice chair of education for the Department of Biostatistics, is an All of Us investigator and an executive leader on the Summer Institute team.

“Introduction to the All of Us Research Program” will take place July 17–21 from 1 to 4 p.m., with 7 hours of lectures and 4 two-hour labs where participants will be guided through hands-on exercises with survey, electronic health record (EHR), genetic, and mobile health (Fitbit) data. DRC members will join Harris and Chen to provide practical tips and insights on using All of Us Workbench tools.

The morning course (9 a.m.–noon) the week of July 17–21 will be “Regression and Modeling in R,” taught by research assistant professor of biostatistics Gustavo Amorim, PhD. Amorim has previously led three- and four-day bootcamps and workshops in R in Mozambique and online. He is also first author of a Journal of the Royal Statistical Society paper that made use of Vanderbilt Comprehensive Care Clinic data and won the 2022 Methods Publication Award in the Department of Biostatistics.

The second week of the Summer Institute (July 24–28) will feature two core offerings: “Big Data in Biomedical Research,” taught by Qi Liu, PhD, associate professor of biostatistics and biomedical informatics, and Yu Shyr, PhD, professor of biostatistics, biomedical informatics, and health policy, and “Introduction to Causal Inference,” taught by Andrew Spieker, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics. Led by award-winning instructors, these well-reviewed short courses provide participants with an abundance of materials to assist them with real-world data analysis beyond the classroom. “Big Data in Biomedical Research” has been an Institute course since 2015, and “Introduction to Causal Inference” since 2019, with the 2021 and 2022 editions delivered online.

Tuition for each course is $700 for VU/VUMC faculty and staff, and $450 for VU/VUMC students, trainees, and postdocs, with a 20% discount on registrations received before June 1. Parking and food are included, with continental breakfast for morning course participants and boxed lunches for all. Space in the All of Us course is limited to 30 participants. To learn more about each course and to enroll, visit the Summer Institute webpage.
 

In observation of International Women's Day 2023, here's a view of our department:

Visit the Our People section of this site to learn more about our department members.

TOP ROW: senior associate Yuwei Zhu, PhD student Siwei Zhang, quality assurance analyst Vinni Yenukonda, professor Fei Ye, PhD student Elisa Yazdani, MS student Lydia Yao, postdoc Jing Yang, PhD student Yan Yan, PhD student Bailu Lucy Yan, lead biostatistician Meng Xu
ROW 2: biostatistician Ke Xu, PhD student Jiangmei Ruby Xiong, research professor Pingsheng Wu, application developer Hui Wu, PhD student Julia Whitman, PhD student Valerie Welty, PhD student Hannah Weeks, lead biostatistician Li Wang, research assistant professor Jing Wang, chief business officer Janey Wang
ROW 3:  PhD student Shengxin Tu, PhD student Julia Thome, health services research analyst Afan Swan, PhD student Tianyi Sun, senior biostatistician Lili Sun, associate program manager Kayla Sullivan, program manager Cierra Streeter, biostatistician Tess Stopczynski, biostatistician Ine Sohn, adjunct instructor Ayumi Shintani
ROW 4: lead biostatistician Yaping Shi, PhD student Lan Shi, research assistant professor Laurie Samuels, biostatistician Paridhi Ranadive, statistical genetic analyst III Marisol Ramirez-Solano, associate professor Rameela Raman, senior biostatistician Heather Prigmore, associate Sharon Phillips, lead biostatistician Amy Perkins, research associate professor Jackie Pennings, biostatistician Rebecca Owens, application developer Savannah Obregon
ROW 5: assistant in biostatistics Hui Nian, educational programs manager Chazlie Miller
ROW 6: senior biostatistician Elizabeth McNeer, associate biostatistician Cara Lwin, associate professor Qi Liu, assistant professor Jinyuan Liu, associate professor Dandan Liu, adjoint assistant professor Pei-Ying Emily Lin, biostatistician Yajing Li, postdoc Jia Li, PhD student Lisa Levoir, senior program manager Jess Lai
ROW 7:  MS student Yeji Ko, PhD student Jamie Joseph, MS student Megan Taylor Jones, biostatistician Cassie Johnson, biostatistician Xiangyu Ji, lead biostatistician Cathy Jenkins, research assistant professor Li-Ching Huang, senior financial analyst Sandra Hewston, biostatistician Cassie Hennessy, assistant in biostatistics Kim Hart
ROW 8: MS student Megan Hall, assistant professor Amber Hackstadt, business process manager Nicole Gunnison, senior associate Tebeb Gebretsadik, VICTR associate director Cheryl L. Gatto, 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
ROW 9: research assistant professor Svetlana Eden, senior program manager Peg Duthie, research assistant professor Liping Du, PhD student Chiara Di Gravio, professor Mary Dietrich, 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
ROW 10: research associate professor Heidi Chen, PhD student Marisa Blackman, biostatistician Caroline Birdrow, project manager Heather Bickham, principal biostatistician Aihua Bian, vice chair of informatics and collaborative programs Lynne Berry, adjunct instructor Mary Banach, assistant to the chair Jena Altstatt, health services research analyst Onika Abrams
 

During Reunion Weekend, on October 7, 2022, Vanderbilt's Master of Public Health program celebrated its 25th anniversary. Professor William Dupont was recognized for his 25 years of outstanding teaching in the program. (Earlier this year, Dr. Dupont's 45 years at the university were also highlighted.) Department members Yu Shyr and Yuwei Zhu were recipients of 10-Year Teaching Awards.

The 2022 Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference was hosted by the American Statistical Association in St. Louis from October 6 through October 8. Participants associated with our department included the following:

Sarah Lotspeich (a graduate of our PhD program), presenting author of "One size fits all: A generalized algorithm to fitting GLMs with censored predictors in R" and chair of "Celebrating our Knowledge"

Tess Stopczynski (biostatistician), presenting author of "Handling limit of detection values for sepsis biomarkers in neonates," co-authored by senior associate (Gregory) Dan Ayers, with Jörn-Hendrik Weitkamp from the Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation

Tianyi Sun (PhD student), presenting author of "Submodel approximation under preconditioning outcome approach." Co-authored by associate professor Dandan Liu.

Congratulations to all!

The 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings, which begin this Saturday, August 6, are expected to bring together more than six thousand attendees from over fifty countries. We are proud of the department members and alumni who will be sharing their work in Washington, DC, next week. They include the following:

Sunday, August 7

At 2:00 p.m., in session 9, assistant professor Simon Vandekar will present an invited paper, "Cell Normalization and Phenotyping for Multiplexed Single-Cell Imaging," that he co-authored with recent PhD graduate Coleman Harris (now at Nashville Biosciences) and current PhD student Jiangmei Ruby Xiong.

Also at 2:00 p.m., in session 23, associate professor Benjamin French will present his topic contributed paper, "Statistical Analysis of Atomic Bomb Survivor Data: Challenges and Opportunities." This session will also feature "Evaluation of Sources of Bias in Time-Dependent Radiation Dose Response Models for Individual Cohorts and Challenges Associated with Pooling in the Million Worker Study," which French co-authored with colleagues in Oak Ridge and Yeji Ko, a student in our MS program.

At 4:00 p.m., in session 37, assistant professor Andrew Spieker will present an invited paper, "A Semiparametric G-Computation Approach Based on Cumulative Probability Models," that he co-authored with biostatistician Caroline Birdrow (a graduate of our MS program) and professor Bryan Shepherd. Shepherd co-authored two papers in the session: 

Monday, August 8

At 8:30 a.m., session 90 will feature invited papers on "Dealing with Error-Prone Electronic Health Record Data via Validation Sampling," with Bryan Shepherd as organizer and chair. He co-authored "Advantages of Multi-Wave, Multi-Frame Sampling Designs for Analysis of Error-Prone Data from Electronic Health Records," which will be presented by Pamela Shaw from Kaiser Permanente, and "Implementing an Optimal Multi-Wave Validation Design in a Multi-National HIV Research Cohort," which will be presented by research assistant professor Gustavo Amorim.

Also at 8:30 a.m., assistant professor Jinyuan Liu will be chairing session 109, which will feature six contributed papers on "Innovative Approaches in Biomarkers Discovery and Subgroup Analyses."   

At 10:30 a.m., in the Mental Health Statistics Section's poster session, PhD candidate Kaidi Kang will present a poster, "Accurate Confidence Interval Estimation for Non-Centrality Parameters and Effect Size Indices," co-authored with five other Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers: Kristan Armstrong, Suzanne Avery, Maureen McHugo, Stephan Heckers, and Simon Vandekar.

At 2:00 p.m., the Statistics in Imaging Section showcases its student paper winners, in a session organized and chaired by Simon Vandekar.

The Biometrics Section is likewise featuring early-career paper winners at 2:00 p.m., in a session chaired by Andrew Spieker.

Tuesday, August 9

At 8:30 a.m., a paper co-authored by professor Qingxia (Cindy) Chen, "Estimation of Treatment Effects and Model Diagnostics with Two-Way, Time-Varying Treatment Switching," will be presented in the topic contributed session on "Statistical Considerations for Adjusting Overall Survival in Randomized Trials with Treatment Switching." 

At 10:30 a.m., another topic contributed session sponsored by the Biopharmaceutical Section will include "Testing and Estimating Treatment Effect in the Presence of Delayed Onset of the Effect for Cancer Immunotherapies," a paper co-authored by Hui Nian, assistant in biostatistics and orthopedic surgery.

At 2:00 p.m., session 312, "What We Know About What We Don't Know: Overcoming Incomplete Data in Practice," will be chaired by Sarah C. Lotspeich, a graduate of our doctoral program who's now an assistant professor in the new Department of Statistical Sciences at Wake Forest University. The invited papers in this session include "Missing Data in the Baseline Health Surveys of the All of Us Research Program and the Opportunity from Multiple Information Sources," which will be presented by Cindy Chen; her collaborators include biostatistician Xiaoke (Sarah) Feng and assistant Shawn Garbett.

Wednesday, August 9

At 2:00 p.m., in session 488, Jiangmei Ruby Xiong will present a contributed paper titled "Faster Estimation for Constrained Gamma Mixture Models Using Closed-Forms Estimators." The paper was co-authored by Simon Vandekar and an array of prominent School of Medicine scientists.

Congratulations and safe travels to all!