BIOMETRICS SECTION NEWSLETTER, February 2010

BIOMETRICS SECTION NEWSLETTER, February 2010
Edited by Page Moore , Biometrics Section Publications Officer

WELCOME 2010 SECTION OFFICERS!
The Biometrics Section would like to introduce you to the current members of the Section's Executive Committee. Before doing so we offer a well-deserved “Thank You!” to the outgoing members.

Jeremy Taylor is the outgoing Past Section Chair and has completed three years of service as Chair-Elect, Chair, and Past Chair. Jeremy is the Pharmacia Research Professor of Biostatistics and a Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology in the School of Medicine at the University of Michigan . He received his Ph.D. in Statistics from UC Berkeley and was on the faculty at UCLA from 1983 to 1998, when he moved to the University of Michigan . He has worked in various areas of statistics and biostatistics, including Box-Cox transformations, longitudinal and survival analysis, cure models, missing data, smoothing methods, surrogate and auxiliary variables. He has been heavily involved in collaborations in the areas of radiation oncology, cancer research and bioinformatics.

The Section Chair for 2010 is Barry Graubard . Barry is a Senior Investigator in the Biostatistics Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he works on statistical methods for epidemiologic and genetic analysis of data from national health surveys with complex sample designs. Barry received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from University of Maryland , College Park . He has been at NCI since 1990 and had previously worked at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Alcohol Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration, and National Center for Health Statistics. He collaborates in a variety of areas of cancer and public health research including diet and body size related to cancer and other causes of mortality, cancer screening, cancer surveillance, epidemiology of testicular cancer, and family history of cancer.

Barry Graubard takes over for Daniel Heitjan (Section Chair 2009). Dan is a Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics at the University of Pennsylvania . He earned his PhD in Statistics at the University of Chicago and previously worked at UCLA (1985-1988), Penn State (1988-1995) and Columbia University (1995-2002). His research is in the areas of incomplete data, clinical trials, longitudinal studies, health economics and pharmacogenomics. His collaborative work has been predominantly in cancer, cardiac surgery and smoking cessation research.

Our Chair-elect for 2011 is Jack Lee . Jack is a Professor of Biostatistics within the department of Biostatistics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He also holds an Adjunct Professor position at Rice University and at the University of Texas School of Public Health. He received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of California at Los Angeles . Jack's area of research interest include design and analysis of clinical trials, survival analysis, longitudinal data analysis, statistical computation/graphics, statistical methods for determining drug interaction in combination studies and cancer chemoprevention.

Tom Belin continues serving as our secretary/treasurer. Tom is a Professor in the UCLA Department of Biostatistics, where he has worked on incomplete-data methods and in a variety of applied areas including mental health research, cancer prevention and control, health services research, and public-health dentistry. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics in 1991 from Harvard, and among other professional interactions with Executive Board members, he worked closely with Jeremy Taylor when Jeremy was at UCLA.

Hormuzd Katki follows Wensheng Guo as the Biometrics Section Program Chair to the 2010 JSM Program Committee. Hormuzd is a Staff Scientist in the Biostatistics Branch of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics in the National Cancer Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University . His primary research interests are in individualized models to predict risk of disease (cervical cancer) or of carrying highly-penetrant mutations ( BRCA1/2 ), two-phase designs for epidemiologic studies nested within cohorts (R package NestedCohort), and statistical issues involving cancers related to human papilloma virus.

Liang Li follows Jinbo Chen as the Biometrics Section Program Chair for the 2010 ENAR Meeting Program. Liang is Associate Staff in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic. He received his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2003. His main areas of research include measurement error models, varying-coefficient models, joint analysis of longitudinal and survival data, and statistical applications in cardiac and thoracic surgeries.

Mike Daniels is the Council of Sections Representative for 2008–2010. Mike is Professor and Chair in the Department of Statistics at the University of Florida . He received his doctorate from Harvard and was on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University and Iowa State University before moving to Florida . His research interests include (Bayesian) methodology for longitudinal data and missing data, methodology for estimating dependence, and applications in cancer, the environment, behavioral research, aging, and animal welfare.

Denise Roe is our 2009–2011 Representative to the Council of Sections. Denise is a Professor in the Epidemiology & Biostatistics Division of the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at The University of Arizona. She received an M.S. in Biometrics from the University of Colorado and a Dr.P.H. in Biostatistics from UCLA. She has been on the faculty of the University of Arizona since 1988. Her statistical research interests include developing and evaluating statistical methods useful in clinical trials, prevention studies, pharmacokinetics, and longitudinal studies. She collaborates with cancer and public health researchers in the design, conduct and statistical analysis of clinical, prevention and laboratory studies.

Additionally, Mousumi Banerjee begins a term as our 2010–2012 Council of Sections representative, reflecting that our section membership has exceeded the count of 2000 once again. Mousumi is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan in the School of Public Health . She received her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her previous appointments include Assistant Professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo and at Wayne State University , and Associate Professor at Wayne State University . She also held visiting faculty appointments at the University of Pretoria and the University of Calcutta . Mousumi's current research interests include tree-structured regression and ensemble methods for censored data, survival analysis with competing risks, and multilevel models in health services research applications. She is also a member of the UM Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Jerry Heatley continues serving as the Continuing Education Chair. Jerry is the Senior Manager of Clinical Data Systems at Thoratec Corporation, a medical device company that is the world leader in ventricular assist device technology. Prior to joining Thoratec, Jerry worked as a Research Associate in Statistics for the Lahey Clinic Medical Center in Burlington , MA .

Bonnie LaFleur will continue to serve as the Chair of the Strategic Initiatives Committee. Bonnie obtained her doctorate in Biometrics in 1999 from the University of Colorado in Denver and was an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center until 2007. She is currently on the faculty in the Division of Epidemiology & Biostatistics at the University of Arizona 's Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. Her research interests include permutation and nonparametric statistics, generalized linear models and analysis of linear and nonlinear mixed models.

Page Moore continues serving as the Section's Publication officer. Page received her doctorate in statistics from Baylor University in 2006 and has been a faculty member in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences since 2006. Her main research interests are in multiple imputation techniques, longitudinal data analysis, computational statistics, and clinical trial design.

Gerald Beck is our Amstat Online Assistant Editor (also known as our Webmaster). He is Staff in the Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. His primary interest is in the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical trials. He serves as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of Data Coordinating Centers (DCC) for multi-center clinical studies supported by NIH, including the Dialysis Access Consortium (DAC) and the Hemodialysis (HEMO) Study.

INTERESTED IN HELPING OUT AT THE JSM?
Want to get more involved in JSM? Consider volunteering to chair a session. Chairing a session is an important responsibility and a great way to meet your colleagues. If you are interested, contact our Section's 2010 Program Chair, Hormuzd Katki, at ( katkih@mail.nih.gov ).

NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR 2010 BYAR YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD AND BIOMETRICS SECTION TRAVEL AWARDS
Do you know a young investigator who is planning to submit an abstract for the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)? If so, you may wish to alert that individual that the ASA Biometrics Section is seeking applications for the 2010 David P. Byar Young Investigator Award. This annual award is given to a young investigator for best emerging work to be presented at the JSM. The award commemorates the late David Byar, a biostatistician who made significant contributions to the development and application of statistical methods and was esteemed as an exceptional mentor during his career at the National Cancer Institute. The winner will receive a $1,500 cash award.

In addition to the Byar Award, the Section may provide travel awards to the authors of other outstanding papers that are submitted to the competition.

Have held a doctorate in statistics, biostatistics or a related quantitative field for three years or less as of April 1 of the current year, or be currently enrolled as a student in a doctoral program in statistics or biostatistics and in active pursuit of a doctoral degree.
Be a current member of the Biometrics Section (applicant may join at the time of submission for a $5 annual membership fee). Please note that membership in ASA does not automatically confer Section membership; ASA members must join individual sections in addition to their generic membership.
Be first author of the paper. The paper may be unsubm itted, submitted or under review, b ut may not have already appeared in a journal either on-line or in print at the time of the application or have been accepted for publication as of January 1 of 2010.
Be scheduled to present the same paper submitted for the Award at the 2010 Joint Statistical Meetings in Washington , DC as either a talk or poster.
Not have submitted the paper to any other ASA section 2010 student/young investigator award competition.

Applicants must submit their JSM abstracts to the Biometrics Section, which will organize a series of Topic Contributed sessions to highlight the submitted papers.

For the 2010 competition, applicants should first submit a Topic Contributed abstract to the JSM by the usual abstract deadline of Feb. 1, 2010. Applicants should contact the Section JSM Program Chair, Hormuzd Katki ( katkih@mail.nih.gov ), prior to the abstract deadline.

Then by March 1, applicants should complete their application by submitting the following materials:

A cover letter certifying that the applicant meets the eligibility requirements and is not submitting the paper to any other ASA section student/young investigator award competition.
A current CV.
One copy of the finished paper.

All materials must be submitted electronically on or before March 1, 2010 . Applications and questions should be sent to Daniel Heitjan at dheitjan@upenn.edu .

The 2010 Awards Committee is composed of the 2010 current and past Section Chairs and Chair-Elect as well as three additional individuals to be appointed by the Section Chairs prior to the competition. Information regarding this award is also available on the Section webpage, easily accessed by clicking on the “Section” tab at the top of the ASA website ( www.amstat.org ).

2010 ENAR AND JSM - RESEARCH FUNDING SESSIONS
For those of you interested in applying for research funding from the national Institutes of Health there will be sessions at the upcoming ENAR meeting in New Orleans and at JSM in Vancouver . The panel discussion sessions will describe opportunities for funding from NIH and highlight the need for more applications for biostatistical methodology research. Reversing the recent trend of a decreasing number of applications to the Biostatistical Methods and Research Design study section at NIH is important for the biostatistics profession.