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Celebrating Black History Month

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | One Comment | 419 views]

DeJuran Richardson was pursuing a purely mathematical path of study when, midway through graduate school, he was introduced to the biostatistics field by a chance stumble into a conference on sequential methods and testing in clinical trials.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | No Comment | 387 views]

Drake Gibson is a lifelong Prince George’s County, Maryland, resident who became passionate about data science after learning to program in R and Python in graduate school. While working at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, he took on projects that enhanced his knowledge—his colleagues noticed and encouraged him to apply to be a data scientist.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | No Comment | 422 views]

Jemar Bather is a senior scientist in biostatistics at Merck, where he applies his statistical expertise to develop new medications that enhance health outcomes for those affected by infectious diseases.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | No Comment | 305 views]

Lehana Thabane was always fascinated by numbers and the information one can get from a single number. He took all the mathematics courses offered to him as an undergraduate. Then, when he ran out, he took statistics courses.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | No Comment | 348 views]

Kobi Abayomi once dreamed of becoming a physicist, but switched majors after he took his first class in statistics at Georgia Institute of Technology. Today, is head of science for Gumbel Demand Acceleration—a Software as a Service (SaaS) company for digital media—and Betaside Recordings, both data science startups at the intersection of demand and supply curves for musicians, artists, and music listeners. He also holds an appointment at Seton Hall University, where he teaches in the undergraduate and master’s in data science program.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month, Cover Story »

[1 Feb 2024 | 2 Comments | 792 views]
Black History Month 2024

In celebration of Black History Month, we recognize eight individuals from the Black/African American collective who have made contributions to the statistics field as mentors, professors, and entrepreneurs.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | No Comment | 360 views]

Christophe Toukam Tchakoute grew up in Cameroon during the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is how he became interested in STEM. His interest was reinforced when he attended the University of Cape Town in South Africa and became curious about the chemistry and cell biology of HIV and how the virus can hijack the immune system for its own benefit. Consequently, he interned in the HIV/AIDS department at the World Health Organization and was introduced to epidemiology and biostatistics. He now works at Genentech and leverages statistics and real-world data to inform clinical trial design for different oncology programs.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | No Comment | 667 views]

Lloyd Edwards earned a master’s in mathematical statistics at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1982 and then worked for TRW Defense Systems for three years as a software engineer focusing on antisubmarine warfare. He graduated from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1990 with a PhD in biostatistics, leading to a career as a faculty member in the University of North Carolina Department of Biostatistics for close to 25 years. Since 2017, Edwards has been a professor in the department of biostatistics in the school of public health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2024 | One Comment | 541 views]

Chandra Erdman started college at 15 and earned her first degree in mathematics by 20. Eventually, she become the first Black person to earn a PhD in statistics from Yale University.

A Statistician's Life, Celebrating Black History Month »

[1 Feb 2023 | One Comment | 1,202 views]

Peggy Carr and her siblings were among the first African American students to integrate K–12 schools in eastern North Carolina. This challenging period of community growth, identity, and self-reflection inspired her intense interest in equity in education. She began to excel in mathematics and science, which eventually led her to excel at two historically Black universities—North Carolina Central and Howard. The first in her family to earn a PhD, Carr is also the first person of color to hold the prestigious, presidentially appointed position of NCES commissioner.