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.

ASA members Donald Young, Jane Gentleman, and Donald Guthrie passed away recently.

Born and raised in Lebanon, Amal Moussa holds a PhD in statistics, earned with distinction from Columbia University. Her thesis, “Contagion and Systemic Risk in Financial Networks,” shed light on the importance of the network structure in identifying systemic financial institutions and formulating regulatory policies and has been cited as a reference by former Federal Reserve president Janet Yellen. Moussa was also awarded the Minghui Yu Teaching Award at Columbia University.

The Pfizer/ASA/Columbia University Symposium on Risks and Opportunities of AI in Clinical Drug Development aims to advance the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug development and deployment.