Richard Arnold Johnson, aged 88, died on February 2, 2026. He lived a rich life of service and contributed greatly to the profession of statistics.
University of Minnesota
Haitao Chu Wins Michael H. Kutner Alumni Award
Haitao Chu was honored by the Emory University Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics at the Eastern North American Region of the Biometric Society annual meeting in March.
Professional Opportunities
Check out professional opportunities from Harvard Medical School, the University of Minnesota, and Rice University.
Susan Paddock
When Susan Paddock started her undergraduate degree, two pivotal courses—health care reform and women’s health—introduced her to epidemiological literature and cost–benefit analysis, steering her toward a major in math and biostatistics. After earning her PhD from Duke, Paddock joined the RAND Corporation, where she applied statistical methods to health policy research. Notably, she contributed to designing a Medicare payment system for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, affecting federal programs and congressional deliberations. Since 2019, Paddock has held a leadership role at NORC at the University of Chicago, overseeing a diverse team of statisticians, survey methodologists, and data scientists working on national issues. She was also involved in testing the safety of self-driving cars. Collaborating with Nidhi Kalra of RAND in 2016, she highlighted the inadequacy of existing road tests to ensure public safety, drawing attention from a US Senate committee. Their paper on this topic stands as her most frequently cited work, showcasing the power of statistical thinking in addressing crucial societal concerns.
UMN Committee, Local Schools Create Mutually Beneficial Collaboration
Marta Shore and Sarah Samorodnitsky at the University of Minnesota spearheaded UMN’s Biostatistics Community Outreach and Engagement Committee and created collaborations with local high schools. Here, they tell us about two of them.
People News for August 2019
Laura Hildreth joined the Institute for Defense Analyses as a research staff member.
Laura Hatfield
Laura Hatfield grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, as a classic nerdy kid interested in math and science. She began college on a pre-med route, but while doing medical research at Johns Hopkins, she learned she wanted to design studies and analyze data. After several years immersed in health policy research, she co-founded the Heath Policy Data Science Lab with Sherri Rose at Harvard.
Master’s Programs in Data Science and Analytics
More universities are starting master’s programs in data science and analytics due to the wide interest from students and employers. We reached out to the statistical community and asked a few to answer our questions about the cross-disciplinary programs.