SC Connecticut News

Bhramar Mukherjee, a prominent figure in public health statistics and data science, has been appointed the Anna M.R. Lauder Professor of Biostatistics at Yale University. This appointment commenced on August 1 and is set for a term of ten years, renewable by the dean of the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH).

Mukherjee recently joined YSPH as the inaugural senior associate dean of public health data science and data equity. She succeeds Paul Cleary, the former dean who previously held the Lauder chair.

In addition to her new role, Mukherjee is also a professor of chronic disease epidemiology at YSPH. She holds a secondary appointment in Yale's Department of Statistics and Data Science within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Her affiliations extend to the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale and the Institute for the Foundations of Data Science. Furthermore, she serves as a fellow at Benjamin Franklin College.

Mukherjee's work in biostatistics includes significant contributions to integrating genetic, environmental, and healthcare data. Her research interests cover electronic health records analysis, gene-environment interactions studies, shrinkage estimation, data integration, and assessing multiple environmental pollutants. Her collaborative efforts have spanned cancer research, cardiovascular diseases, COVID-19 studies, exposure science, environmental epidemiology, and reproductive health.

Her achievements have earned her numerous awards in innovation and leadership within data science. Mukherjee is a fellow of both the American Statistical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2022, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Additionally, she holds an overseas fellowship at Churchill College at Cambridge University where she has a senior honorary visiting fellow position in their Biostatistics unit.

In her capacity at YSPH, Mukherjee will be responsible for developing a strategic plan for public health data science and equity aimed at fostering transformative research amidst evolving methods and technology changes. She will also focus on enhancing educational programs to increase diversity among scholars in this field while supporting international partnerships that promote global practices in public health data science.

Mukherjee obtained her Ph.D. in statistics from Purdue University before joining Yale from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. There she served as John D. Kalbfleisch Distinguished University Professor of Biostatistics; Siobán D. Harlow Collegiate Professor of Public Health; first woman chairperson for their Department of Biostatistics; as well as assistant vice president for research overseeing university-wide research data strategy planning.