Firm Footing
Thanks to the Guaranteed Admission Program, Pitt student Evan Trump had the freedom to explore—ultimately shifting from biology to biostatistics and health data science. After earning his bachelor’s degree, he took that spirit of discovery even further, hiking the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine.
Community perceptions of a petrochemical plant’s environmental footprint
Before the Shell ethane cracker plant in Beaver County, Pa., fired up its flares in November 2022, Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Health Data Science Jeanine Buchanich, PhD, and her team at the University of Pittsburgh were already listening.
Wang is first author on Microbiome article
Wenjia Wang, a PhD candidate in biostatistics and health data science at Pitt’s School of Public Health, has made significant advancements in understanding the maternal-fetal microbiome connection.
Yan Ma and Ying Ding named Fellows of the American Statistical Association
School of Public Health Department of Biostatistics and Data Health Science faculty members Yan Ma, PhD, chair and professor, and Ying Ding, PhD, professor and associate dean of graduate academic affairs, have been elected Fellows of the American Statistical Association (ASA).
Health Sciences award recipients at Faculty Honors Convocation
On April 3, five Pitt Public Health faculty members were celebrated at Pitt’s Faculty Honors Convocation for their outstanding achievements.
From Pittsburgh Roots to Academic Heights: The Journey of Lauren Balmert Bonner
Looking back, Bonner is grateful for the solid foundation Pitt gave her. “The faculty, the hands-on experience, the community—it all made a difference,” she said.
U.S. News and World Report 2025 graduate school rankings released
Pitt Public Health and several departments and programs perform well in the latest graduate school rankings.
Liu Wins JSM Student Paper Award
Chen Liu received the Joint Statistical Meetings Student Paper Award from the Health Policy Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association for "Heterogeneous Causal Mediation Analysis Using Bayesian Additive Regression Trees,” a paper that introduces a novel approach revealing individual-level variations in mediation mechanisms underlying treatment effects on health outcomes, offering insights that could lead to more effective health interventions.
Tseng and team awarded R01 for work on evaluation and selection of cancer models
Alongside Principle Investigator Adrian Lee of the Institute for Precision Medicine, George Tseng has been awarded a prestigious $3 million, five-year R01 grant for the groundbreaking project "Single-cell congruence evaluation and selection of cancer models towards precision medicine."
Xinlei Chen Receives 2025 ASA Student Paper Award for Research on Federated Learning and Sepsis
The American Statistical Association Statistical Computing and Statistical Graphics Sections has awarded Xinlei Chen the prestigious 2025 ASA Student Paper Award.
Journey Through Biostatistics: Runjia Li Bridges Theory, Practice, and Community
Runjia Li, a PhD candidate in the Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, recently completed work for her dissertation, which focuses on developing doubly robust methods for estimating causal effects in survival data
Public Health and Engineering team up on five research projects
Pitt’s School of Public Health, Swanson School of Engineering, and Clinical and Translational Science Institute have joined up to award $450,000 to five transdisciplinary pilot investigations focused on precision public health, a field that uses data science to develop targeted interventions by person, place and time.
4 Pitt projects making life healthier — not just longer
Maria Mori Brooks professor of epidemiology and of biostatistics and health data science and Anne Newman, a distinguished professor of epidemiology are working across a broad spectrum of disciplines to promote health and well-being across life stages.
Graduate Student Fellowship Grant Award: Haoran Hu’s Achievement
Haoran Hu, a dedicated PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh, has been honored with the prestigious Graduate Student Fellowship Grant Award from UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. This fellowship is designed to support full-time PhD students conducting innovative research under the mentorship of CHP faculty members. The award offers a $40,000 annual funding for two years, aiming to advance impactful research collaborations and nurture the next generation of scientific leaders.
Using AI to address post-COVID health care demands
A study led by Qiong Wu, PhD, assistant professor of biostatistics and health data science at Pitt’s School of Public Health, is using artificial intelligence (AI) to tailor treatment and care in hospital settings.