Kathryn M. Roeder is an American statistician known for her development of statistical methods to uncover the genetic basis of complex disease and her contributions to mixture models, semiparametric inference, and multiple testing. Roeder holds positions as professor of statistics and professor of

computational biology Computational biology refers to the use of data analysis, mathematical modeling and computational simulations to understand biological systems and relationships. An intersection of computer science, biology, and big data, the field also has fo ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, where she leads a project focused on discovering genes associated with

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

Education and career

Roeder did her undergraduate studies at the

University of Idaho The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University ...

, where she graduated in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in wildlife resources. Roeder worked as a biologist for a year in the Pacific Northwest before returning to academia for graduate studies in statistics. She completed her Ph.D. in 1988 at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

; her dissertation, supervised by Bruce G. Lindsay, was ''Method of Spacings for Semiparametric Inference''. Roeder joined the faculty of

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

in 1988 and earned tenure there. She remained at Yale until 1994, when she moved to the statistics department at Carnegie Mellon. She added a second appointment in

in 1998, and served a term as Vice Provost for Faculty from 2015 to 2019.

Recognition

In 1995 Roeder became an elected member of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

. She was elected 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 1996. In 1997 she received two major awards from the

Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies The Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS) comprises the presidents, past presidents and presidents -elect of the following, primarily Northern American, professional societies of statisticians: * American Statistical Association * ...

: the Presidents' Award "in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics", and the George W. Snedecor Award, for her work in

biometry Biostatistics (also known as biometry) are the development and application of statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experime ...

with Bruce Lindsay and Raymond J. Carroll. In the same year she was elected as a fellow of the

Institute of Mathematical Statistics The Institute of Mathematical Statistics is an international professional and scholarly society devoted to the development, dissemination, and application of statistics and probability. The Institute currently has about 4,000 members in all parts o ...

, and in 1999 gave the Medallion Lecture of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics. She won the Janet L Norwood Award for outstanding achievement by a woman in the statistical sciences in 2013. Roeder was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2019. She was awarded the 2020

R. A. Fisher Lectureship The COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award and Lectureship (formerly known as R. A. Fisher Award and Lectureship) is a very high recognition of achievement and scholarship in statistical science that recognizes the highly significant impact of stat ...

Personal

Roeder is married to Bernard J. Devlin, a psychiatrist at the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, and has worked with him on research involving genetics and autism.

Selected publications

* * *. * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roeder, Kathryn M. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American statisticians Women statisticians Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Fellows of the American Statistical Association Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences University of Idaho alumni Pennsylvania State University alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty Yale University faculty