I am delighted to announce that Yu Shyr, Ph.D., an extremely well-regarded cancer-focused biostatistician and informatician, will be joining Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown Lombardi effective this July. I look forward to welcoming Dr. Shyr as he assumes his new roles as chair of the Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Biomathematics (DBBB), as director of Lombardi’s Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Shared Resource and as founding associate director for quantitative biology.
Dr. Shyr is currently chief of the Division of Cancer Biostatistics and director/founder of the Cancer Biostatistics Center at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC). Throughout his career, he has been instrumental in positioning biostatistics as an essential scientific collaborative discipline that enriches basic science, translational research, data analysis and clinical trials.
Dr. Shyr has a very impressive record of scientific accomplishment. His CV lists 234 peer-reviewed publications, and he has secured substantial funding for his work over the course of his career. He was honored with election to the American Statistical Association in 2010. His current research interests have included traditional multivariate analysis, with an emphasis on the analysis of high-dimensional data. He is also active in the statistical design and analysis of clinical trials.
In addition to his research, Dr. Shyr has built an impressive record of academic leadership, earning accolades from students for his teaching and mentorship in biostatistics, epidemiological methods and clinical trial design and analysis.
I expect his vast scientific expertise, his demonstrated leadership and his commitment to building consensus will prove tremendous assets to the work of Lombardi and GUMC investigators. Needless to say, he will be critically important as we move towards the resubmission of our Cancer Center Support Grant application.
There will be ample opportunity in the coming months to learn more about Dr. Shyr and for him to meet many Lombardi members before he officially starts in July.
I also wish to take this opportunity to thank Chris Loffredo for his stellar stewardship of the DBBB as interim chair of the department. Not surprisingly, Chris has provided steady leadership for DBBB members, and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his ongoing role as program leader of Lombardi’s Carcinogenesis, Biomarkers and Epidemiology program.
Enjoy your weekend!