School of Public Health biostatistics PhD student Roland Brown and recent graduate Chong Wu (PhD ‘18) won ENAR Distinguished Student Paper Awards, receiving a travel stipend to present their research at the ENAR Spring Meeting from March 24-27 in Philadelphia. ENAR, which refers to the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society, is the major North American conference for biostatisticians.

Every year, ENAR holds a student paper competition that attracts upwards of 150 entries from around the country. Of those entries, the top 20 are selected to receive awards. The papers chosen represent the most innovative and relevant research in the area of developing biostatistical methods.

“We are very proud that Chong and Roland received ENAR student travel awards,” said Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies for Biostatistics Julian Wolfson. “Having their papers judged as being among the top few from over 150 submissions shows the high quality of their work and their ability to communicate it to the statistical community.”

Brown, who is advised by Wolfson, was selected for a paper on how to combine information from a large number of individuals to make better predictions about a particular individual.

“The award is a great resume-builder and allows me to network, get more exposure to potential employers, and gain more experience presenting,” says Brown.

Wu, who was co-advised by Associate Professor Weihua Guan and Professor Wei Pan, researched how to test for interactions between genes and the environment that can trigger disease.

“I am very happy to receive the ENAR Student Award because I tried to get it several times and it may really help me establish connections with people and potential collaborators,” says Wu.