UCLA Fielding’s Dr. Marc Suchard recognized for work on use of data science theory and methods in the biomedical and environmental sciences
Dr. Marc Suchard, a physician and professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics, is being honored for his work.
A professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics has received the 2026 Outstanding Impact Award and Lectureship in from one of the leading international societies for scientists in the discipline.
“This was not expected, but is very much appreciated,” said Dr. Marc Suchard, a physician and professor in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health’s Department of Biostatistics; Suchard’s award will be recognized next month at the annual Western North American regional conference of the International Biometric Society, June 14-17. “What this award spotlights is the importance of foundational research into improving how statistical analysis is used to improve how public health agencies respond in times of crisis.”
In addition, Suchard will deliver the annual lecture by an Impact Award recipient at the Aug. 1-6 Joint Statistical Meetings conference in Boston; that event is the largest gathering of statisticians and data scientists held in North America. Suchard plans to speak on recently published work into how improved methods to track infectious diseases, including COVID-19, mpox, and Ebola, can used by public health officials in an emergency.
“The results enable us to write clear guidelines for the use of novel computational approaches analyzing viral sequences to guide public health decisions in emerging infectious disease crises,” Suchard said. “Our open-source methods are available to the scientific community and can be used to investigate the drivers of viral spread, through space and between people, to design tailored intervention strategies.”
The International Biometric Society (IBS), an international professional and academic society promoting the development and application of statistical and mathematical theory and methods in the biosciences. The Western North American Region (WNAR) includes covers the 13 western-most U.S. states and three Canadian provinces; IBS was founded in 1947 and WNAR was founded in 1948.
The IBS publishes the peer-reviewed journal Biometrics and the Journal of Agricultural, Biological, and Environmental Statistics (JABES) jointly with the American Statistical Association. It also sponsors the International Biometric Conference, held every two years.
