Jonathan Schildcrout
Longtime ASA member Paul Rathouz—a distinguished biostatistician, educator, and leader, whose career spanned nearly three decades of sustained intellectual rigor and deep commitment to public health—passed away on December 10, 2025.
Trained at Rice University, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Paul developed methodological expertise in longitudinal data analysis, epidemiological and clinical trial study design, semiparametric models, semiparametric estimating equations, missing and mismeasured data, and latent variable models. Paul’s scholarship was characterized by technical excellence, but he was particularly motivated by data analysis and study design to improve human health.
An American Statistical Association Fellow and recipient of numerous honors, including the James E. Grizzle Distinguished Alumni Award from UNC, Paul earned the respect of colleagues across biostatistics, epidemiology, and medical informatics through both the depth of his contributions and his engagement with others.
Paul’s academic leadership was as consequential as his research. He served with distinction at The University of Chicago, the University of Wisconsin-Madison—where he was professor and chair of biostatistics and medical informatics—and most recently at Dell Medical School and The University of Texas at Austin, where he was professor of population health and statistics, director of the Biomedical Data Science Hub, and a founding faculty member shaping Dell Medical School’s educational mission. In these roles, Paul helped build programs, departments, and interdisciplinary collaborations that will endure long beyond his tenure. He had a rare ability to bridge theory and application, uniting statisticians, clinicians, and investigators around shared scientific purpose.
Teaching and mentorship were central to Paul’s identity. Over the course of his career, he developed and taught foundational courses in biostatistics, longitudinal data analysis, survival analysis, and modern data science, often creating curricula from the ground up. He mentored copious doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, medical trainees, and junior faculty, many of whom have gone on to leadership roles in academia, industry, and public service. Paul’s mentees describe him as patient, incisive, and deeply invested in their growth—someone who challenged them intellectually while offering steady encouragement and trust.
Paul was also a devoted servant to the profession. His extensive service to national and international organizations—including the ASA, Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society, Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies, and Society for Clinical Trials—reflected his belief that strong scientific communities require care, governance, and inclusion. He chaired major committees, organized junior investigator workshops, led training programs, and helped shape the future of biostatistics through sustained, often unseen labor. Earlier in his life, his Peace Corps service in the Central African Republic foreshadowed a lifelong commitment to service, education, and global perspective that never left him. Paul maintained a close relationship with friends developed in the Peace Corps.
Beyond titles and publications, Paul was a trusted collaborator, a thoughtful mentor, and a steady presence in moments that mattered—whether guiding a student through difficult mathematical theory or computational programming, helping a colleague think through a complex study design, or building institutional structures that allowed others to succeed. His intellectual legacy lives on through his work and in the many people he taught, mentored, and inspired.
At the center of Paul’s life was his love for his daughters, Annika and Hanna Lou. He spoke about them with unmistakable pride, joy, and tenderness, and many recall how deeply he wanted to be present for them, especially as he looked toward the years ahead. He lived with illness longer and more fully than many expected, facing it with courage, clarity, and grace. Paul’s legacy lives on in his daughters, in the many lives he shaped, and in the example he set for moving through the world—with intelligence, humility, humor, and heart. He was truly one of the best of humanity and our community. Paul’s friends, and his extended family will miss him dearly.
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