Final Exam - Angela Dahl
Committee: Elizabeth Brown (chair), Holly Janes, Fei Gao, Carolyn Rutter, and Pamela Kohler (GSR)
Title: Statistical Methods for Infectious Disease Prevention Studies with Varying Exposure Risk
Abstract: In studies of infectious disease prevention, differences in participants' probability of being exposed to infection can greatly influence their infection outcomes. If these differences in exposure risk are unobserved or only partially observed, then it can be difficult to estimate the association between an intervention and the risk of infection without bias. In this dissertation, we provide statistical methods to account for differences in exposure risk due to calendar time changes in infection risk (projects 1 and 2), and we investigate the challenge of estimating effect modification when there is unobserved heterogeneity in exposure risk (project 3).
For diseases with temporal (often seasonal) epidemic patterns, the risk of exposure to infection can vary dramatically over calendar time as the scale of…
Event interval: Single day event. Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94629537214?pwd=wsRSHxmMP9URk59F189o2C5VOcLDJi.1. Campus room: Fred Hutch Arnold Building, Room M1-A303 (first floor). Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Academics.
Thursday, December 4, 2025, 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM.
Final Exam - Victoria Knutson
Committee: Jon Wakefield (Chair), Ken Rice, Marco Carone, and Julianne Meisner (GSR).
Title: Statistical Methods for Excess Mortality Estimation with Variable Data Availability and Completeness
Abstract: Estimating the true mortality impact during a global shock, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, across all countries presents significant challenges, particularly in attributing deaths directly or indirectly to the event. A more practical approach involves analyzing "excess deaths" which represents the number of deaths during a specific period exceeding expected mortality under normal conditions. In the first aim of this dissertation, we developed a model to estimate excess mortality by comparing total and expected deaths. We employed both long-term trends and short-term seasonal patterns derived from historical data to estimate the counterfactual non-shock deaths, and covariate modeling to estimate unreported mortality during the shock period. In the second aim, we extend the model to estimate age- and…
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Online Meeting Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/92188173481. Campus room: HRC 370. Accessibility Contact: Deb Nelson, nelsod6@uw.edu, 206-685-9323. Event Types: Academics.
Friday, December 5, 2025, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM.
Fall Career Panel
Biostats program alumni will share their career journeys, impressions from their time in the program, and tips about hiring at their organizations.
Panelists (subject to change): Si Cheng, Data Scientist at Netflix , Angela Zhang, Mathematical Statistician at the FDA , Raylynn Zhou, Biostatistician I at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus room: N/A, Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees. Accessibility Contact: Maggie Tarnawa. Event Types: Information Sessions. Target Audience: School of Public Health graduate students, as well as graduate students in Statistics.
Friday, December 5, 2025, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM.
Zoom.
CLEAR Center Webinar: Placebo and Contextual Effects in Clinical Trials for Osteoarthritis: Lessons from the TeMPO Trial
Speakers:
Jeffrey Katz, MD, MS
Professor of Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health. Clinical Director of the Orthopaedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Director of Research in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at BWH.
Jamie Collins, PhD
Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Orthopaedic and Arthritis Center for Outcomes Research at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, USA. Director of the Biometry Consultancy Unit in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Director of the Data Management & Analysis Core of the Brigham Coordinating Center for the Arthritis Foundation’s Osteoarthritis Clinical Trials Network.
Register here.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus room: Online. Accessibility Contact: theclearcenter.@uw.edu. Event Types: Lectures/Seminars.
Monday, December 8, 2025, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM.
For more info visit theclearcenter.org. Telling Your Story Through Interviews
How can you stand out during an interview to get a job offer? We’ll cover ways to formulate answers to common questions, practice most effectively, and handle nerves.
Event interval: Single day event. Campus location: Hans Rosling Center for Population Health (HRC). Campus room: HRC 370. Accessibility Contact: Maggie Tarnawa. Event Types: Workshops. Target Audience: Biostatistics Students.
Friday, January 9, 2026, 2:30 PM – 3:20 PM.
Winter Career Panel - Academia Focus
Biostats program alumni working in academia will share their career journeys, impressions from their time in the program, and tips about hiring at their organizations.
Panelists: Anna Plantinga, Associate Professor at Williams College (PhD grad) , Charles Wolock, Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, University of Rochester , Manisha Desai, Kim and Ping Li Professor, Associate Dean of Research, Section Chief of Biostatistics, Director of the Quantitative Sciences Unit at Stanford (PhD grad) , Taylor Okonek, Assistant Professor of Statistics at Macalester College (PhD grad).
Event interval: Single day event. Campus room: N/A, Zoom link will be sent to registered attendees. Accessibility Contact: Maggie Tarnawa. Event Types: Information Sessions. Target Audience: School of Public Health and Statistics/Data Science-focused graduate students.
Friday, February 13, 2026, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM.
Zoom.