By Peihua Qiu, Ph.D.
The UF department of biostatistics, established in 2010, has rapidly developed into one of the nation’s premier biostatistics departments. Currently, the department boasts 28 faculty members, 38 Ph.D. students and over 65 M.S./M.P.H. students.
Our faculty members are leaders in their respective research areas, and our graduate programs are highly esteemed. This is evidenced by the numerous honors and recognitions recently received by our faculty and students from national organizations.
For instance, Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, was recently elected president of the American Statistical Association, Rhonda Bacher, Ph.D., was elected president of the Florida Chapter of the American Statistical Association, and I was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Additionally, our Ph.D. students Xinyu Yan and Yuan Zhou were among the inaugural recipients of the PHHP AI fellowship funding. In 2022, our department was ranked #11 among all biostatistics programs at public universities nationwide by U.S. News & World Report.
In terms of research, our faculty and students published over 160 papers in refereed journals last year, with many appearing in top publications such as the Annals of Applied Statistics and the New England Journal of Medicine. The department received more than $9.3 million in extramural funding to support our research endeavors. Recently, Drs. Rhonda Bacher, Susmita Datta, Subha Guha, Arka Roy and Peihua Qiu secured significant NIH, NSF and CDC grants.
Maintaining the quality of our graduate programs is always a top priority. We continually devise strategies to enhance our course offerings. Over the past decade, we have introduced more than 20 new courses into our graduate curriculum.
Under the leadership of Steve Foti, Ph.D., director of graduate studies, we recently submitted a proposal to develop an undergraduate certificate program in biostatistics. In the past academic year, the department graduated 12 Ph.D., 11 on-campus M.S., and 17 online M.S. students. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all recent graduates on their accomplishments and wish them success in their future careers.
The success of our department relies on the support of our alumni and friends. We hope to continue receiving your strong support.
Qiu is a professor and chair at the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions’ department of biostatistics