Professor Laura Kubatko, from the Department of Statistics and the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, is amazed by the advances she’s seen in her career in how scientists translate “observations into formal mathematical or statistical models.” Moreover, this is, for her, the “fun part,” because they collaborate to explain “why [we] think [an event] is happening.”
Statistical modeling can reveal many hidden facts, such as the best time to start certain treatments for childhood traumatic brain injuries. Elly Kaizar, Professor of Statistics, has shown that statistically combining data from several sources gives us the opportunity to learn more about treatment effectiveness as it varies with different treatment implementations and across populations. Prof. Kaizar discusses this topic and more ways statistical analyses can mitigate imperfect data collection with host David Staley on this week’s Voices of Excellence.