Steven Snapinn, Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research Editor

I’d like to highlight a special issue of Statistics in Biopharmaceutical Research (SBR) that will appear in May 2011. This issue will be dedicated to the festschrift celebration of the career and life of Gary Grove Koch, which took place on October 12–13, 2009, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Gary Grove Koch

Koch is professor of biostatistics and director of the Biometric Consulting Laboratory in the Gillings School of Global Public Health at The University of North Carolina (UNC). He earned a BS in mathematics and MS in industrial engineering from The Ohio State University and a PhD in statistics from UNC. In December 1967, he was appointed to the faculty of the department of biostatistics at UNC, where he teaches and conducts research to this day.

Koch’s principal research interest is the development of statistical methodology for the analysis of categorical data and its corresponding application to a wide range of settings in the health sciences. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and has received the Spiegelman Award from the American Public Health Association and the John E. Larsh Jr. Award for Mentorship ativan online canada from UNC in recognition of his impact as a mentor.

This special issue was initiated by previous SBR editor, Joseph Heyse, and is guest edited by John Preisser, research professor in the department of biostatistics at UNC. Two highlights are a biography of Koch by Preisser and Dennis Gillings, chair and CEO of Quintiles Transnational Corporation and a former UNC biostatistics professor, and a conversation with Koch conducted by Lisa LaVange of the department of biostatistics at UNC. There also will be approximately 20 scientific articles by a distinguished set of authors, including former students, touching on the many topics Koch has contributed to during his career.

This special issue of SBR also will be the topic of an invited paper session at the Joint Statistical Meetings in Miami Beach, Florida, scheduled for August 3. It will be chaired by LaVange and include presentations by Sue-Jane Wang of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, George Chi of Johnson & Johnson, and J. Richard Landis of The University of Pennsylvania. A discussion will be led by Koch.