Amita Kalyanie Manatunga is a

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

n biostatistician who works as a professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics at the

Rollins School of Public Health The Rollins School of Public Health (RSPH) is the public health school of Emory University. Founded in 1990, Rollins has more than 1,100 students pursuing master's degrees ( MPH/MSPH) and over 150 students pursuing doctorate degrees ( PhD). Th ...

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

, where she is also affiliated with the Winship Cancer Institute. Her research interests include survival analysis, inter-rater reliability,

environmental epidemiology Environmental epidemiology is a branch of epidemiology concerned with determining how environmental exposures impact human health. This field seeks to understand how various external risk factors may predispose to or protect against disease, illnes ...

, and

medical imaging Medical imaging is the technique and process of imaging the interior of a body for clinical analysis and medical intervention, as well as visual representation of the function of some organs or tissues (physiology). Medical imaging seeks to rev ...

of the

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blood ...

Education and career

Manatunga graduated from the

University of Colombo (Buddhih Sarvatra Bhrajate) , mottoeng = ''Wisdom Enlightens'' , established = , endowment = Sri Lankan rupee, LKR 1.461 1,000,000,000 (number), billion

in Sri Lanka with first class honors in 1978. She has master's degrees in statistics from

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

(1984) and the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

(1986). She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Rochester in 1990. Her dissertation, ''Inference for Multivariate Survival Distributions Generated by Stable Frailties'', was supervised by David Oakes. After finishing her doctorate, she joined the faculty at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universit ...

as an assistant professor, and moved in 1994 to Emory. At Emory, she is a long-term and frequent collaborator with two other women in biostatistics, Limin Peng and her former student Ying Guo.

Recognition

Manatunga was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

in 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manatunga, Amita Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American statisticians Sri Lankan scientists Sri Lankan women scientists Women statisticians Alumni of the University of Colombo Purdue University alumni University of Rochester alumni Indiana University faculty Emory University faculty