We are pleased to announce the promotion of Onur M. Orun to principal biostatistician, effective October 1. Orun earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics from Izmir University of Economics in Turkey, followed by a MS in math from Bilkent University (Ankara, Turkey) and a MS in statistics from Colorado State University, with his master's project focusing on alumni association membership retention at CSU. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center since 2019, Orun has collaborated primarily with Vanderbilt's Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center, playing a lead role in creating statistical analysis plans and high-quality, reproducible reports for randomized controlled trials and observational studies, with first-authorship of "Statistical analysis plan for the Surgery for Cancer with Option of Palliative Care Expert (SCOPE) trial: A randomized controlled trial of a specialist palliative care intervention for patients undergoing surgery for cancer" (Trials 2021). Orun has co-authored nine other peer-reviewed publications to date, in high-impact journals such as Lancet: Respiratory Medicine, JAMA Surgery, Chest, and New England Journal of Medicine, and won our department's Linda Stewart Applied Analysis Report Award twice, in 2019 for "Vitamin D to Improve Outcomes by Leveraging Early Treatment: Long-term Brain Outcomes in Vitamin D Deficient Patients (VIOLET-BUD)" and in 2023 for "BRAIN-ICU Long-term Outcomes Latent Trajectory Analysis Report." Away from his computer, his interests include foodie adventures and hiking. Click his name to view his staff profile.
