What drew you to the field of public health?
“I’ve always liked math and programming, and I thought statistics would be a great way to combine those interests. Once I learned about the field of biostatistics as an undergrad at Minnesota State University, Mankato, I became interested in how statistics could help improve public health. I decided to pursue both my MS and PhD in biostatistics here at SPH.”
What’s your current research focus?
“My research uses spatial statistics to address data privacy problems. There are scenarios where releasing data for public use can risk the privacy of the individuals in the dataset, where unique individuals could be identified using basic demographic information. Rather than releasing incomplete data, we can use spatial statistics methods to create ‘synthetic data’ that provide nearly the same inference as the real data with minimal risks to individuals’ privacy.”
Why is UMN SPH the right place for you to do this work?
“There is so much expertise at SPH. We have a very strong school of public health, and all of the divisions in SPH are powerhouses in their own right. It is particularly helpful for my work to have the Minnesota Population Center housed here at U of M. We also have great partnerships with the state and the Minnesota Department of Health, which strengthens our standing as a school.”
What courses do you teach, if any? What do you enjoy about working with students?
“Last semester, I taught PUBH 7440: Introduction to Bayesian Analysis, and what I love about that course is that there’s a mix of master’s level biostatistics students with PhD students from other programs. In particular, I enjoy watching the students persevere through computing challenges and feel that sense of accomplishment when they get to the other side.”
Tell me one thing about yourself that most people don’t know.
“Much to my wife’s dismay, I have a record collection of over 1,000 records ranging from punk albums to movie scores, the highlight of which is probably my collection of test presses with hand-painted covers by the artist and musician Kepi Ghoulie. I’ve tried sharing this hobby with my daughter, Ruby, by getting her some Taylor Swift albums, but she’s a little confused why daddy gets squeamish about the idea of her ‘dropping the needle’ on her ‘music circles’.”
What do you do when you are not working?
“Aside from buying records and listening to music, I enjoy hiking and spending time with my family. That said, I’ve been trying to convince my wife to play ‘Risk’ or ‘Blokus’ with me for the past 10 years to no avail, so if anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears!”
