"What is the collective noun for a group of biostatisticians?"

Associate Professor Cameron is a member of the Biostatistics Centre (University of Otago, New Zealand), collaborating, primarily, with people working health-related research. As a senior biostatistician she works in a wide range of content areas leading the methodological aspects of studies.

She worked as a statistician, in various guises, from 1990 until 2011. Since 2011, she has been a research-only biostatistician with a focus on improving the quality of quantitative research studies, leading to a track record of articles in high-ranking journals. Her work includes meta-analysis on advertising displays for tobacco retailing, survival analysis of PhD completions, mixed models on caries in prehistoric dental remains, factor analysis on veteran’s health and randomised trials for pain relief.

Throughout her career, she has been concerned about statisticians and biostatisticians becoming isolated. As a consequence, she has strengthened the ties between the biostatisticians on the three campuses of the University of Otago and has formed various networks of like-minded professionals. She has also spent time mentoring both formally and informally.

She has been a member of the New Zealand Statistical Association since 1990 and a member of (and the New Zealand representative for) the Caucus of Women in Statistics since 2020.

Invited speaker: Chuck Huber, Director of Statistical Outreach, StataCorp

Chuck Huber is Director of Statistical Outreach at StataCorp and Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the Texas A&M School of Public Health and at the New York University School of Global Public Health.

Dr. Huber currently teaches survey sampling at NYU and introductory biostatistics at Texas A&M where he previously taught categorical data analysis, survey data analysis, and statistical genetics.

In addition to working with Stata's team of software developers, he produces instructional videos for the Stata Youtube channel, writes blog entries, develops online NetCourses and gives talks about Stata at conferences and universities.

Most of his current work is focused on statistical methods used by behavioural and health scientists. He has published in the areas of neurology, human and animal genetics, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, nutrition and birth defects.

Invited speaker: Professor Robin Turner, University of Otago

"What to expect from a biostatistics supervisor?"

Professor Robin Turner is Director of the Biostatistics Centre at the University of Otago. Robin is a biostatistician who specialises in the application of biostatistical methods to health-related research. Her research covers a wide range of health-related areas including understanding the burden of influenza and other respiratory viruses, improving follow-up and monitoring after treatment for cancer and estimating the prevalence and risk factors for chronic diseases.

Robin has expertise in the biostatistical methods relating to a randomised clinical trial design to estimate the effect of patient preferences for treatment on their outcomes. This trial design allows the investigation of the efficacy of decision aids. She is involved in research into improved biostatistical methods for risk prediction modelling. She has expertise in the methods and analysis of diagnostic test accuracy reviews. As the methods expert she ensures research studies are designed and analysed properly and uses a range of complex biostatistical methods to do this.