Primary Faculty

PhD, Statistics, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Research interests include: missing data, measurement error, sampling design, statistical education, global health

PhD, Computer Science, University of Minnesota

Research interests include: bioinformatics, causal inference, cancer genomics, computational biology, data science, high-dimensional statistics, machine learning

More information: amirasiaee.com

PhD, Cell Biology, Vanderbilt University

PhD, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina

Affiliations include: Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR)

Research interests include: causal inference and clinical trials; application areas include HIV/AIDS, pediatrics, critical care, and pulmonary medicine

More information: bryanblette.com

PhD, Biomathematics, North Carolina State University

Research interests include: survival analysis, mixed model and longitudinal data analysis, two-stage adaptive design for phase II clinical trials, model/process validation for high-dimensional data

PhD, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research interests include: missing data, survival analysis (especially time-varying effect and treatment switching), Bayesian methods in big data, penalized approach for 1<n/p<10, developing statistical methods for using electronic health records (EHRs) and genetics information in precision medicine, cancer, ophthalmology, infection disease, cardiovascular diseases, suicide

Honors and service include: co-chair, 2024 International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) Applied Statistics Symposium; Academy for Excellence in Education (elected 2023); chair, 2022 all-department retreat; James E. Grizzle Distinguished Alumna Award, University of North Carolina (2015); Department Methods Publication Award (2014); numerous committees, including Faculty Search (2005 - present); associate editor, Statistics and Its Interface (2016 - present) 

PhD, Biostatistics, National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)

Research interests include: methodology development in phase I clinical trials, pattern recognition and robust estimation; statistics with applications in clinical trials, industrial statistics, cancer biology

PhD, Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University

Research interests include: constructing a system for pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics studies using electronic health records (EHRs), which would provide the foundation for dose-optimization support system for precision medicine; developing medication dosing extraction algorithms from EHRs, which would also benefit medication-related studies in pharmacoepidemiology

More information: The Choi Lab

PhD, Statistics/Mathematics Education, The Ohio State University

Research interests include: medical education assessment; research and statistical collaboration; questionnaire design; regression modeling; statistical consulting; statistics and mathematics education; mixed methodology; the statistics and mathematics achievement gap

Honors include: 2022 Geoffrey David Chazen Award for Innovation in Medical Education; Academy for Excellence in Education (elected 2015; mentoring committee chair; board of directors, 2022–2030: member-at-large, 2022–2024; director-elect, 2024–2026; director, 2026–2028; immediate past director, 2028–2030)

PhD, Chemical Engineering, Vanderbilt University

Responsibilities include: collaborating with basic science and clinical research scientists in different fields, focusing on writing statistical analysis plan for grant applications and helping them with experimental designs, analyzing statistical data, interpreting results, and preparing manuscripts. Du also works on clinical trial reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), performs data analysis for epidemiology studies and high-dimensional proteomic/genomic/metabolomics research, and collaborates with Peabody at Vanderbilt on education-related statistical data analysis.

PhD, Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University

Research interests include: epidemiology, breast disease, cancer, genetics, hormonal replacement therapy, screening, power and sample calculations, data management, data quality assurance, clinical trials, stopping rules, foundations of statistical inference, likelihood methods

Selected honors: Fellow, American Statistical Association (elected 2009); Ernest W. Goodpasture Award for Groundbreaking Research, 2003; Academy for Excellence in Education (elected 2021)

PhD, Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University

Research interests include: developing semi- and nonparametric methods of estimating correlation in survival data; causal inference methods (specifically Mendelian Randomization analysis); risk factors in veterans; survival analysis; rank association measures; Bayesian modeling 

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Washington

Research interests include: statistical analysis methods for longitudinal and survival data, with scientific focus on estimation of exposure-outcome associations or evaluation of prediction accuracy; cardiovascular disease; cancer epidemiology; health economics

Service and honors include: statistical editor, JAMA Pediatrics; elected member, National Council for Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP), 2024–2030

Google Scholar page

MS, Statistics, Pennsylvania State University

Research interests include: applying computational and numerical skills to modeling complex data, Rational Integration of Genomic Healthcare Testing (RIGHT), reproducible manuscripts

Honors include: contributor to three of the most significant publications in genomics, 2021–2023

MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley

Research interests include: clinical asthma research (adult and pediatric), infectious disease/global health, rheumatology/immunology, statistical methods in epidemiology, predictive modeling, analysis of electronic health records, multidimensional data, observational studies, causal inference studies, maternal and environmental influences on pediatric respiratory health, teaching biostatistics, clinical pharmacology, HIV and AIDS, cancer, clinical trials, diabetes

PhD, Statistics, University of Pennsylvania

Research interests include: clinical trial design, causal inference, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, and any investigation "that has a chance to improve people's lives."

Honors include: Patrick G. Arbogast Collaborative Publication Award (2019); Outstanding Faculty Mentor (2018); Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (2015)

PhD, Statistics, Colorado State University

Faculty affiliate, Center for Health Services Research

Research interests include: health service research, public health research, diabetes, environmental biostatistics, causal inference, Bayesian inference, regression splines, semi parametric estimation

Honors and service include: Data safety and monitoring board member, Preliminary Investigation of optimaL Oxygen Targets (PILOT) trial; graduate program and staff promotions committees (chair); useR!2022 organizing committee; faculty search committee; inaugural Fleming Society cohort (2021–2023); American Statistical Association Middle Tennessee Chapter treasurer (2022−2024)

PhD, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina

Research interests include: development of accurate prognostic and diagnostic models, model validation, clinical trials, observational clinical research, cardiovascular research, technology evaluation, pharmaceutical safety, Bayesian methods, quantifying predictive accuracy, missing data imputation, statistical graphics and reporting

Honors and service include: founding department chair, 2003–2017; fellow, American Statistical Association (ASA; elected 2005); associate editor, Statistics in Medicine; W. J. Dixon for Excellence in Statistical Computing (ASA, 2014); senior biostatistics advisor, Office of the Center Director, FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER, 2022–present); expert statistical advisor, Office of Biostatistics, CDER (2016–2020); scientific advisory board member, Science Translational Medicine; policy advisory board member, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

More information: fharrell.com

PhD, Statistics, National Cheng Kung University

Research interests include: functional data analysis; estimation of density partial derivatives; mode estimation; survival analysis; clinical trials; quantile regression with longitudinal data; single-cell RNA-seq normalization and clustering

Winner of the 2022 Methods Publication Award.

PhD, Statistics, National Cheng Kung University

PhD, Epidemiology, University of Miami

Research interests include: latent variable modeling, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), mediation analysis, application of advanced statistical methodology for prevention research on substance use and HIV risk behavior.

PhD, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina

American Statistical Association service includes: Middle Tennessee chapter secretary (2022–2024); Middle Tennessee representative to the Council of Chapters (2019–2022); Vice Chair, District 2 (2015–2017)

PhD, Biostatistics, Brown University

Research interests include: spatio-temporal modeling; multiple testing problems and their applications to imaging data; multi-modal imaging data analysis (e.g., fMRI and DTI)

Honors include: Jacek Hawiger Award for Excellence in Teaching Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows in the Classroom, Lecture, or Small Group Setting (2022); election to the Academy for Excellence in Education (2022); Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching (2020 and 2016); Vanderbilt Center for Quantitative Sciences High Impact Research Award (2016)

PhD, Statistics, University of Pittsburgh

Research interests include: group sequential methods; two-stage adaptive procedures (phase II / phase III); noninferiority / superiority / equivalence trials; statistics in basic science; statistical graphics; p value, confidence interval, unbiased estimate from a Simon's two-stage procedure

Honors and service include: Patrick G. Arbogast Collaborative Publication Awards (2014 and 2017); treasurer, American Statistical Association, Middle Tennessee Chapter (2022)

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Michigan

Research interests include: biomarker evaluation, event history data analysis with application to cardiovascular disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, risk prediction modeling, disease progression modeling, electronic health records 

Honors include: Outstanding Faculty Mentor (2022); Department Method Publication Award (2015) 

Service includes: president-elect, Association of Clinical and Translational Statisticians (2024–2026; president, 2026–2028; past president, 2028–2030); co-chair, 2024 International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) Applied Statistics Symposium; Steering Committee Member of Executive Committee: Design and Data Analytics (DaDA) Professional Interests Area (PIA) of the Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART) (2022–present); Department of Biostatistics Graduate Admissions (2014–2023), Faculty Search Committee (2017–present), and Biostatistics Resource Allocation Committee (chair, 2020–2024) 

Member of: International Biometric Society (IBS); East North American Region (ENAR); American Statistical Association (ASA); Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTStat); Alzheimer’s Association International Society to Advance Alzheimer’s Research and Treatment (ISTAART); International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) 

PhD, Biostatistics, University of California, San Diego

Research interests include: behavior sciences, psychiatry, psychology, causal inference, and longitudinal data analysis

More information: sites.google.com/view/jinyuanliu

PhD, Biomedical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Research interests include: omics, single-cell transcriptomics, single-cell multimomics integration, genomics, epigenomics, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, enhancer-mediated regulation

PhD, Biostatistics, Harvard University

Research interests include: epidemiology, study design, assay tech, omics

Service includes: Member Engagement Committee co-chair, ASA Section on Statistics in Genomics and Genetics (2024); faculty coordinator, Vanderbilt Biostatistics seminars (2025); VBSIUU planning committee and mentor (2024 - present); ICSA student paper competition chair (2023 - 2024); graduate program admissions committee and curriculum committee 

More information: https://syma-research.github.io

PhD, Biochemistry, Oregon State University

Research interests include: causal inference for multilevel treatments, Bayesian adaptive design for clinical trials, provider profiling

Collaborations include: VUMC Spine Outcomes Lab

Service includes: Chair, Patrick K. Arbogast Collarative Publication Award Committee (2024); VICTR Studio expert (2011–2020); MS Staff Recruitment Committee (2011–2016) 

PhD, Biostatistics, State University of New York, Buffalo

Research interests include: health disparities, geocoding, critical care, child welfare, influenza, statistical education

Honors and service include: Chair, All-Department Retreat (2024); American Statistical Association Council of Chapters representative (2022–2024); Academy for Excellence in Education (elected 2019); Outstanding Faculty Mentor (2019); Patrick G. Arbogast Awards for best collaborative publication (2016, 2019); Delta Omega (National Honor Society in Public Health, inducted 2021); Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (2024)

PhD, Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University

Research interests include: appropriate collection and analysis of data related to race/ethnicity, sex, and gender; causal inference in observational studies and clinical trials; Bayesian methods; data visualization

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Washington

Research interests include: longitudinal data studies, epidemiological study designs, health services research, diabetes and obesity prevention interventions, pharamcogenetics, resource preserving genetic testing programs for indvidualized medicine, epidemiology, predictive modeling and evaluation of predictive models, topics in pain and anesthesiology research

Honors include: Fellow, American Statistical Association (elected 2019); Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (2015 and 2018); Methods Publication Award (2016); Outstanding Faculty Mentor (2024)  

PhD, Bioinformatics, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences

Research interests include: next generation sequencing data analysis (especially for RNAseq, DNAseq and miRNAseq data); bioinformatics in proteomics, glycomics and metabolimics (including algorithm development, data analysis and software implementation).

2018 spotlight

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Washington

Research interests include: causal inference, observational data analysis, ordinal data analysis, applications in HIV and other infectious diseases, measurement error, global health

Affiliate appointments include: Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health; Vanderbilt Tuberculosis Center; Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Biomedical Informatics; Department of Mathematical Sciences, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria (adjunct professor since 2024)

Honors and service include: Best Paper Award, Biometrics (2023), for "Multiwave validation sampling for error-prone electronic health records"; Fellow, American Statistical Association (elected 2018); associate editor, American Journal of Epidemiology (since 2016); associate editor, Biometrics (since 2018); director of the Data Science Core of TN-CFAR (since 2015)

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PhD, Biostatistics, Medical University of South Carolina

Collaborations include: topics in anesthesiology, geriatrics and quality aging, drug repurposing

Research interests include: optimal design and statistical treatment of biomedical experiments

For more information: BioStatMatt.com

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Michigan

Research interests include: statistical and bioinformatic methodology, next-generation sequencing data, adaptive clinical trials, longitudinal binary data; cancer biology, epidemiology, genetics, and bioinformatics; proteomics; survival analysis; teaching biostatistics

Honors and service include: Fellow, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR; elected 2022); Fellow, American Statistical Association (ASA; elected 2010); fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS; elected 2016); associate editor for statistics, JAMA Oncology (since 2015); honorary doctorate, National Cheng Kung University (2018)

DrPH, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina

Research interests include: longitudinal data analysis for observational studies, latent variable methods, Bayesian statistics, reproductive health applications

Areas of collaboration include: gastroenterology, pediatrics, neonatology

Winner of the 2023 Epidemiology PhD Teaching Award.

DDS, Indiana University; PhD, Biostatistics, Vanderbilt University; MPH, Dental Public Health, A. T. Still University of Health Sciences

Research interests include: long-term oral side-effects of cancer therapy; models of care for oral health across the cancer care trajectory; novel methods for assessing risk and predicting the likely course of survivorship-related outcomes

Service and honors include: MASCC Outstanding Young Investigator Award (2019); International Society of Oral Oncology board of directors (2023–2025)

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Washington

Research interests include: causal inference, diagnostic tests and accuracy, health policy, longitudinal data analysis, nonparametric statistics, sensitivity analyses, teaching biostatistics

Awards and service include: Academy for Excellence in Education (2024); Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching (2021); Outstanding Faculty Mentor (2023 and 2020)

More information: andrewspieker.com

PhD, Biostatistics, University of North Carolina

Affiliations include: Vanderbilt Genetics Institute

Research interests include: two-phase designs, missing data, measurement error, rare-variant analysis, trans-ethnic genetic association analysis, genetic risk prediction. Winner of the 2022 Faculty Development Award for "Efficient Efficient Estimation in Two-Phase Studies with Error-Prone Time-to-Event Outcome and Covariates."

Service includes: ASA Council of Sections representative for Statistics in Epidemiology (2023–2025)

More information: sites.google.com/site/dragontaoran/

PhD, Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania

Research interests include: effect sizes, semiparametric (robust) inference, psychiatry, psychology, neuroimaging, immunofluorescence imaging

Service includes: American Statistical Association Middle Tennessee Chapter president (2022–2024); conference chair, 2022 Statistical Methods in Imaging Conference

PhD, Bioinformatics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

Research interests include: single-cell transcriptomics; epigenomics

Honors include: Faculty Development Award (2024); Patrick G. Arbogast Collaborative Publication Award (2022)

PhD, Biostatistics, Boston University

Research interests include: causal inference, mediation analysis, longitudinal data analysis, clinical trials, infectious diseases (TB and HIV), longevity, chronic pain

Service includes: associate editor, Journal of Alzheimer's Disease (2024–present)

PhD, Statistics, Case Western Reserve University

Research interests include: translation bioinformatics, multivariate data analysis and visualization, unsupervised learning, cloud computing and big data analytics, biobanks and EHRs

For more information: tbilab.org

PhD, Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, East China University of Science and Technology & Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Jing Yang’s research work is focused on revealing the relationships between genotype and immunophenotype and identifying the determinates of immunogenicity for immunotherapy in melanoma. Dr. Yang also studies the TGFβ signaling pathway that functions through SMAD4 in inflammation-associated cancer.

VUMC Reporter feature: Vanderbilt biostatisticians launch Cancer-Immu data portal for predicting response to immune checkpoint blockade immunotherapy

PhD, Biostatistics, University of South Carolina

Research interests include: multi-omics data analysis and biomarker discovery; clinical trial design; cancer research; prediction model development and validation

Honors and service include: ASA Fellow (elected 2024); program chair (2024) and program chair–elect (2023), ASA Statistics in Epidemiology Section; assistant editor for statistics, JAMA Oncology (2020–present); president, Mid-Tennessee chapter, American Statistical Association (2019–2020); Biostatistics Faculty Development Award (2018)

PhD, Statistics, George Washington University

Research interests include: network data analysis, applied probability, longitudinal data analysis, missing data, applications in Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative disorders

More information: panpan-zhang.com

MS, Biostatistics, University of Iowa

MS, Applied Mathematics, University of Toledo

Expertise includes: prediction modeling, linear regression, generalized linear regression, categorical data analyses, repeated measures, mixed-effects models, survival analysis, clinical trials, power and sample size justification, statistical computing, microarray data analysis, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) data analysis, machine learning, and data mining. In addition, he is proficient in the use of R and SAS and has considerable experience in conducting and analyzing data from molecular and genetic epidemiology studies of cancer.

Projects include: genetic studies from large consortia, including the Breast Cancer Association Consortium, Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium, and Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome.

PhD, Bioinformatics, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences

Research interests include: developing tools with statistical methods to solve problems in next generation sequencing data analysis; high-dimensional data; transcriptomics; genomics; proteomics data analysis and integration

Co-investigator, Translational Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Lab

MD, Shanghai Medical University; MS, Biometry, University of Texas Health Science Center

Research interests include: influenza vaccine effectiveness, disease burden analysis, studies with EHR-based prognostic decision support