Biostatistics Faculty Meeting
July 29, 2008
12:15-1:15 PM

MINUTES

Present: Faculty: Karen Bandeen-Roche; Brian Caffo; Ciprian Crainiceanu; Marie Diener-West; Francesca Dominici; Constantine Frangakis; Hongkai Ji; Kung-Yee Liang; Tom Louis; John McGready; Roger Peng; Fernando Pineda; Charles Rohde; Ingo Ruczinski; Daniel Scharfstein; Carol Thompson; Jim Tonascia; Mei-Cheng Wang; Postdocs: Chris Barr; Sonja Greven; Students: Nick Reich; Staff: Mary Joy Argo; Visiting Faculty: Henry Mwambi.

Guests: Risha Zuckerman.

Regrets: Harris Jaffee; Rafael Irizarry; Marvin Newhouse; Scott Zeger.

Announcements

Welcome to Henry Mwambi, who is visiting our Department from the University of KwaZulu-Natal through the end of December and who will be working with Tom Louis, Mike Griswold, Ciprian Crainiceanu, and others.

Chris Barr, a new postdoctoral fellow working with Rafael Irizarry, joins us as well.  Chris recently received his PhD in statistics from UCLA, where he worked with Rick Paik Schoenberg.

Karen Bandeen-Roche will be on traveling through August 19; Kung-Yee Liang has agreed to fill in for her in her absence.

November Retreat

In preparation for our upcoming retreat (November 7-9 at the Gettysburg Wyndham), Constantine Frangakis, with a small group of other faculty (including Francesca Dominici, Ciprian Crainiceanu, Chuck Rohde, and Rafael Irizarry), presented his group's first draft of a retreat format for this year.  The proposed focus for this year's retreat is how to improve our impact as individual faculty and as a group.  For Friday evening, there would be a student poster session; this would not only provide students with the opportunity to practice their research presentation skills, but will also allow faculty to get a greater understanding of our students' areas of expertise.  On Saturday (from roughly 8:30 AM to 1 PM), each tenure-track faculty member would give a very brief (ie, five-minute) overview of their future research directions and what kinds of resources/support (ie, space, staff) they would need to accomplish those goals.  After all of the tenure-track faculty presentations, the larger group of faculty, students, and staff would then convene into smaller, break-out groups, each one organized around some of the broad themes that had emerged during the tenure-track faculty presentations.  Each of the break-out groups would come up with some concrete suggestions, which would then be presented to the larger group.  After a break of approximately 1-6 PM, we would reconvene for an hour or so before dinner to compare notes, see if any new ideas had emerged during the afternoon, etc.  To be decided is whether we should have some kind of structured social activity on Saturday night.

In a discussion of the proposed format, it was suggested that we have the Saturday morning session focus on what resources we need, and the pre-dinner session focus on how we can accomplish these goals and would involve developing action items.  Some possible topics for discussion in the morning could include: how do we distinguish ourselves for student recruitment; how and if we need to come up with a consensus for the way do faculty recruitments.  It was also noted that while tenure-track faculty would be the ones providing the brief overviews in the first part of Saturday morning, non-tenure-track faculty, as well as students and staff would be participating in the smaller break-out groups.  There was enthusiasm for having pre-planned groups in mind, so as to make sure that each topic gets an adequate number of people in the break-out group associated with it. 

Anyone with suggestions for materials we might need in advance of the retreat should contact Karen.  Anyone interested in participating in planning the agenda should contact Constantine.  Finally, Risha Zuckerman will be assisting with logistics and coordinating events with the hotel, so Constantine and his group will need to keep her updated as the agenda takes shape.

Standing reports from:

• Faculty Senate
  
  Ciprian Crainiceanu reported that the Faculty Senate is looking at a schoolwide policy on phased retirement.  The current proposal is for the faculty member to initiate the phased retirement process with his or her chair.  The issue is scheduled to be discussed at one of the September Committee of the Whole meetings.  One potential area of concern with phased retirement is the possibility of a salary decrease as a result of a decrease in grant support.
  
  The Faculty Senate is also looking at the issue of schoolwide printing/copying; there doesn't seem to be an easy solution at hand.  Faculty are encouraged to ask their students to print less (where possible).  In a related discussion, there was enthusiasm for having more faculty involvement in consideration of large-scale School expenses.  Toward that end, faculty would like to have Herb Hansen come to an upcoming meeting. 
   
• Graduate Program
  
  Dan Scharfstein provided an update on our two "late-admits" to the PhD program.  Vivienne Thairu (undergrad degree from the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore; master's in statistics from American University) has accepted our offer and will be joining our incoming class.  Parichoy Pal Chaudhury (undergraduate degree from Indian Statistical Institute) has decided to stay in India and do a master's degree, after which time he may consider reapplying to our department.  As a result of our recruitment effort with Parichoy, Aravinda Chakravarti (who was his mentor for a summer internship) will be going to India soon and may be able to help us improve our recruiting efforts there.  He will also be participating in one of our Grand Rounds.  
  
  As a way of bolstering applications for the upcoming admissions cycle, we are considering having a Friday or Saturday open house in the fall for local college juniors and seniors.  Dan will keep everyone updated as plans for this take shape.  In a related discussion, there was enthusiasm for expanding our summer internship opportunities for undergraduates, perhaps with a longer-term goal of making this into a formal summer program.
  
  Curriculum information for first and second-year students is being distributed (via email, for second-year students, and via hard copy, to incoming students).  Advisors of students looking for elective options are encouraged to refer their students to the first-term course Design of Clinical Experiments (140.642), formerly taught by Steve Piantadosi and now being taught by Jim Tonascia and Scott Zeger.
  
  For those students being required to do a retake of the first-year comprehensive exam, the date will be Monday, August 11 (with the take-home data analysis being due on Thursday, August 14).
  
  As mentioned at the July 1 faculty meeting, Chuck Rohde will be offering a not-for-credit math refresher workshop to prospective concurrent MHS students (our own incoming ScM students are invited to take the course as well).  The dates are Tuesday, August 5 through Friday, August 8, all day, with lunch breaks.  We may also have occasional follow-up sessions/seminars during first term.  To date, approximately 25 people have signed up.
   
• BIT
  
  Fernando Pineda reported that more departments are participating in the cost-sharing program for our cluster computing. 
  
  Representatives from IBM will be visiting on August 13; they're interested in setting up a super-computer at Hopkins and this visit would for them to find out what our needs are.  We plan to have representatives from both the Schools of Public Health and Medicine at the meeting.  If you're interested in participating, please contact Fernando, who will also be sending out an email with more specifics.
   
• Students
  
  Nick Reich reported that many current students thought that updated information about computing would be useful to our incoming students.  Nick and other interested students will work with Brian Caffo and others to get updated computing information to our new students; this would be in addition to the other introductory materials they receive (ie, recommended curriculum, scientific minor description, etc.). 
   
• Biostatistics Center
  
  Carol Thompson will be recruiting at the JSM for master's and PhD-level positions with the Center.
   

Recruitment Brochure

As part of our efforts to improve our student recruitment process, it was suggested that we look into producing a new brochure/DVD/some other promotional item.  Brian Caffo recently met with Public Affairs and, at an upcoming meeting, will report back on their new "recruitment card" which they have developed as a replacement for the brochures.  In advance of our more detailed discussion, please email Brian if you have any questions or ideas for recruitment media.

2008 Culley Award

Marco Carone is this year's recipient, which honors outstanding achievement by a PhD student on the second-year paper (which is presented during the schoolwide preliminary oral exams, in the third year).