Photo by Eliza Grinnell

Affiliation
Harvard University

Educational Background
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge: BS, Mathematics (1980)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: PhD, Statistics (1989)

About Susan
Susan Murphy is a professor of statistics and computer science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. Prior to joining Harvard in September 2017, she was the H.E. Robbins Distinguished University Professor of Statistics, professor of psychiatry, and research professor at the Institute for Social Research—all at the University of Michigan.

Susan’s present research focuses on causal inference and sequential decision-making. She works on both data analysis and design of experiments to inform the sequencing of treatments, as well as how online algorithms can be used both in experimental designs and in treatment design in mobile health.

Susan is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, both of the US National Academies. In 2013, she was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship for her work on experimental designs to inform sequential decision-making. She is a Fellow of the College on Problems in Drug Dependence, a member of the International Statistical Institute, a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (2000), and a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She is also a former co-editor of the Annals of Statistics and delivered the IMS Wald Lectures in 2015.

Susan grew up in southern Louisiana and, as an adolescent and college student, always found mathematics to be beautiful and accessible. While attending Louisiana State University, she realized mathematics could be a career (!) and, better yet, she could use mathematics to improve our society via the field of statistics. Since then, she has never looked back!