Francesca Dominici

Affiliation
Professor of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative

Educational Background
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University: Master of Public Health, Honorary Degree (2009)
University of Padua, Italy: PhD, Statistics (1997)
University La Sapienza, Rome, Italy: BS, Statistics (1993)

About Francesca
Francesca Dominici grew up in a little town called Ciampino, a few miles outside Rome. She always loved mathematics and probability, but soon realized mathematics and probability per se were too abstract. Statistics was love at first sight, since its goal is to develop mathematically rigorous methods to solve problems. Francesca also loved the idea that, as a statistician, you can become expert in many fields, as long as there is important data—which is now everywhere.

Francesca’s research focuses on the development of statistical methods for the analysis of large and complex data; she leads several interdisciplinary groups of scientists with the goal of addressing important questions in environmental health science, climate change, comparative effectiveness research in cancer, and health policy. Currently, her team uses satellite data and multiple data sources to estimate exposure to air pollution in rural areas in the US, India, and other developing countries. Her studies have directly and routinely affected air quality policy and led to more stringent ambient air quality standards in the United States.

Francesca was recognized on the Thomson Reuters 2015 Highly Cited Researchers list, ranking in the top 1 percent of scientists cited in her field. In 2017, she was named one of the top 10 Italian women scientists with the largest impact in biomedical sciences across the world. In addition to her research interests and administrative leadership roles, Francesca has demonstrated a career-long commitment to promoting diversity in academia. For her contributions, she has earned the Janet L. Norwood Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Woman in the Statistical Sciences and the Florence Nightingale David Award. She currently chairs the University Committee for the Advancement of Women Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Prior to Harvard, she was on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she also co-chaired the University Committee on the Status of Women.