University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) Assistant Professor Sandra Safo received a 2024 Emerging Leader Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS), a leading international organization focused on addressing key challenges in the field of statistics.
In naming Safo an emerging leader, COPSS noted several of Safo’s achievements, including her significant contributions to statistical and machine learning methods for integrative analysis, her dedication to education and mentoring, and her far-reaching contributions to the profession.
As part of the SPH Division of Biostatistics & Health Data Science, Safo’s research focuses on developing robust, explainable, and usable statistical algorithms and machine-learning methods in order to advance clinical translational research and precision medicine. She is currently developing methods for integrative analysis of “omics” (including genomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics) and clinical data to help elucidate the complex interactions of these multifaceted data types.
The Emerging Leader Award was recently established by COPSS to recognize the increasingly important role that early-career statistical scientists are playing in shaping the future of the discipline. The award is designed both to call attention to the efforts of these individuals and to provide a mechanism for them to share their vision for the field with the statistical community.
The award will be officially presented at the 2024 Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM) in August. More information about the award and additional recipients can be found here.
About the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies
Comprised of the American Statistical Association, the Eastern North American Region International Biometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Statistical Society of Canada, and the Western North American Region of The International Biometric Society, COPSS’ purpose is to work on shared problems and improve intersociety communication. COPSS activities include the coordination of the calendar of statistical meetings, the preparation of material to inform students about statistics when they are choosing a profession, the sponsoring of lecture series and prizes, and the production of statistical directories.
