简介

I am a Professor of Mathematics at Boston College. Although my formal training was in pure mathematics and computer science, I have worked in the area of statistics since I was an NCI (National Cancer Institute) Postdoctoral Fellow in Biostatistics at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. While at Sloan-Kettering, I worked with a multidisciplinary team of researchers on statistical issues in the analysis of CT (computed tomography) brain scans in cancer patients. Since then, I have collaborated with medical and environmental scientists, and with research statisticians, on various projects. My research has included the design and implementation of computer-intensive statistical methods for the analysis of discrete data; statistical modeling and analyses of clinical data on treatments for premature infants; statistical modeling and analyses of data from fisheries studies of important shellfish populations in the northeast (the softshell clam, Mya arenaria, and the oyster, Crossostrea virginica) and of an invasive species to the northeast (the Asian shore crab, Hemigrapsus sanguineus); and statistical methods for forecasting earthquakes. Most recently, I have focused on statistical and algebraic methods in genetics. Early in my career I co-authored a book on the mathematics of architectural design. The book was re-issued by Cambridge University Press in 2010; information about the book can be obtained here. A theorem from the book, on the mathematics of rigid frameworks, was featured at The Theorem of The Day website in 2009, and in the 2010 calendar entitled "12 Theorems by Women Mathematicians". A description of the rigid frameworks theorem can be obtained here. In 2010 I became the subject of an award-winning essay written by Ms. Ada Li, a student at the Walter S. Parker Middle School in Reading, Massachusetts. The essay contest was sponsored by the Association for Women in Mathematics; information about the 2010 contest can be obtained here. Congratulations, Ada!