L. Adrienne Cupples
Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health

Educational Background
PhD, Mathematical Statistics, Boston University
MA, Mathematical Statistics, Boston University
BA, Raymond College, University of the Pacific

Adrienne Cupples was born and raised in northern California. Her bachelor’s degree was a liberal arts degree from a three-year prescribed curriculum in a new experimental program. As part of the program, she took two courses in mathematics.

In high school, Cupples had no idea what she wanted to do in life. She enjoyed math, but decided she had to be brilliant to do mathematics, so she pursued history and American studies as a specialization.

After her college education, she married and worked for several years. In 1968, she decided to start taking math courses “for the heck of it” at night school while she was working. Cupples really enjoyed these courses, which led to her graduate programs in mathematical statistics. Her introduction to applied statistics was as a teaching assistant for Ralph D’Agostino Sr. While she completed her degree in mathematical statistics, including the theoretical courses, she always had a greater interest in applications of statistics to real problems.

Becoming a biostatistician fulfilled this interest. As a teacher at Boston University School of Public Health, Cupples enjoyed the interaction with students and was involved in the doctoral dissertations of more than 55 of them. As a researcher, she has worked with the Framingham Heart Study for about 35 years. Early in her career, she was introduced to research on Huntington disease and later Alzheimer’s disease. This led to her interest in statistical genetics. For the past 30 years, she has been involved in this field and genetic epidemiology in neurological diseases, as well as heart disease through the Framingham Heart Study. Cupples has evaluated genetic contributions to lipid traits, adiposity, nutrition, and subclinical heart disease. In addition, she has developed genetic risk models for Alzheimer’s disease and evaluated the response of individuals to genetic risk information.