Kiros Berhane, PhD, chair of Biostatistics, was lead biostatistician on one of the country’s first longitudinal studies examining the long-term effects of air pollution exposure on children’s health. His innovative biostatistical methods are used in studies of obesity, asthma, and neurocognitive health.
Let the Data Do the Talking An explosion of interest in powerful quantitative methods has taken hold from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, and public health is likewise engaging deeply with data science. In recent years, Columbia Mailman School faculty have employed new techniques to harness big data to evaluate health challenges, ranging from multiple chemical exposures to motor control impairment in stroke patients to the spread of COVID-19. In January 2020, the School hosted the Data Science for Public Health Summit, convening experts from more than 60 schools of public health. And over the past year, the University’s Data Science Institute, the hub for collaborations between hundreds of faculty from every corner of the university, announced that a third of its seed grants will fund studies by Columbia Mailman School researchers. Most centrally, Columbia Mailman School and the Data Science Institute have launched a joint program in Data Science for Health, providing opportunities for public health students and postdocs to hone their skills. We gathered three faculty members to consider the challenges and opportunities of using data and teaching in this emerging field.
Jeff Goldsmith, PhD, associate professor of Biostatistics, develops methods for understanding patterns in large, complex datasets, including studies of movement limitations in people who have had a stroke and physical activity in children measured through wearable devices.
Jeanette Stingone, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology, conducts research that couples data science techniques with epidemiologic methods to investigate how prenatal and earlylife environmental exposures affect health and development throughout childhood and beyond.
Interview by Tim Paul
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COLUM B I A P U BLI C H E A LT H
2020–2021 EDITION
