Susmita Datta is an Indian

biostatistician 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 experimen ...

. She is a professor of biostatistics at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and is the former president of the

Caucus for Women in Statistics The Caucus for Women in Statistics is a professional society for women in statistics. It was founded in 1971, following discussions in 1969 and 1970 at the annual meetings of the American Statistical Association, with Donna Brogan as its first pr ...

. She is also a musician who has published three CDs of Bengali folk songs.

Education

Datta did her undergraduate studies in physics at the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

, earning a bachelor's degree there in 1986. She began a master's program in physics at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, and was led to statistics both by a probability course she took there and by the better job prospects for graduates in statistics. Having to move to the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

because of family reasons, she earned a master's degree in applied statistics there in 1990 and then a Ph.D. in 1995. Her dissertation, supervised by Jonathan Arnold, was ''Dynamics of Cytonuclear Disequilibria and Related Statistical Tests for The Neutrality of Mitochondrial DNA markers for Hybrid Zone Data''.

Career

After postdoctoral research at

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 ...

, Datta joined the

Georgia State University Georgia State University (Georgia State, State, or GSU) is a Public university, public research university in Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1913, it is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities. It is also the ...

faculty in 1997. In 2005 she moved to the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one of ...

. There she became Graduate Program Director for Bioinformatics and Biostatistics in 2012, and Distinguished University Scholar in 2013. In 2015 she moved again, to the University of Florida, as part of a hiring initiative there for researchers in

metabolomics Metabolomics is the scientific study of chemical processes involving metabolites, the small molecule substrates, intermediates, and products of cell metabolism. Specifically, metabolomics is the "systematic study of the unique chemical fingerprin ...

. She served as president of the

in 2013.

Recognition

Datta was elected to 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 ...

in 2010. In 2012, she became 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 ...

, and in 2014 she was elected as a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

"for her distinguished contributions to methodological and collaborative research in bioinformatics,

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 ...

, and biostatistics, and for student training and promoting women in STEM fields".

References

External links

Home page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Datta, Susmita Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American statisticians Indian statisticians Women statisticians Bengali musicians University of Calcutta alumni University of Georgia alumni Georgia State University faculty University of Florida faculty Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Statistical Association