Dr. Ming-Hui Chen, University of Connecticut

Dr. Ming-Hui Chen is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Head of the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut (UConn). He was elected to Fellow of International Society for Bayesian Analysis in 2016, Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics in 2007, Fellow of American Statistical Association in 2005. He also received the University of Connecticut AAUP Research Excellence Award in 2013, the UConn College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) Excellence in Research Award in the Physical Sciences Division in 2013, the University of Connecticut Alumni Association's University Award for Faculty Excellence in Research and Creativity (Sciences) in 2014, and ICSA Distinguished Achievement Award in 2020. He has published over 428 statistics and biostatistics methodological and medical research papers in mainstream statistics, biostatistics, and medical journals. He has also published five books including two advanced graduate-level books on Bayesian survival analysis and Monte Carlo methods in Bayesian computation. He has supervised or been supervising 37 PhD students. He served as President of the International Chinese Statistical Association (ICSA) in 2013, Program Chair and Publication Officer of SBSS of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and the ASA Committee on Nomination for 2016-2017 to nominate candidates for ASA President/Vice President. Currently, he serves as the 2022 JSM Program Chair, Past President of the New England Statistical Society (nestat.org), Co Editor-in-Chief of Statistics and Its Interface, inaugurated Co Editor-in-Chief of New England Journal of Statistics in Data Science, and an Associate Editor of JASA, JCGS, and LIDA.

Dr. Kun Chen, University of Connecticut

Kun Chen is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut (UConn) and a Research Fellow at the Center for Population Health, UConn Health Center. He has been a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) since 2022 and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI) since 2016. His research mainly focuses on large-scale multivariate statistical learning, statistical machine learning, and healthcare analytics. He has extensive interdisciplinary research experience in several fields, including ecology, biology, agriculture, and population health. Dr. Chen has graduated with over ten PhDs and received Recognition for Teaching Excellence at UConn multiple times. He has also been active in professional services. In particular, he was a core member in establishing the New England Statistical Society (NESS) in 2017 and served as its secretary until 2021. Currently, he serves as the Program Chair for the ASA Section on Statistical Computing and Vice-President for the ASA Connecticut Chapter.

Dr. Chen received his B.Econ. in Finance and Dual B.S. in Computer Science & Technology from the University of Science & Technology of China in 2003, M.S. in Statistics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007, and Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Iowa in 2011. Before joining UConn, he was on the faculty of Kansas State University from 2011 to 2013.

Dr. Jeff Palmer, Pfizer

Jeff Palmer has been a statistics group head leading early clinical development in rare diseases at Pfizer for the past 5 years. Prior to Pfizer he had worked for over ten years with various other pharma and consulting companies supporting mainly rare diseases, oncology, and neurology. Jeff received his MS in statistics from the University of Chicago and conducted his doctoral research in statistics at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Yang Song, Neurocrine Biosciences

Dr. Yang Song is Vice President of Analytics and Data Sciences at Neurocrine Biosciences in San Diego, where he leads a multidisciplinary department spanning biostatistics, statistical programming, data management, and epidemiology & RWE analytics. From 2016 to 2024, he served as Executive Director and Head of the Biostatistics Group for Pipeline Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in Boston. In this role, he oversaw biostatistical support for multiple industry leading drug development programs, including renal diseases, Nav1.8 in pain, and CRISPR gene editing in hematology. During his tenure at Vertex, he co-founded the NERDS workshop series with community leaders in industry and academia, led the organization of the first two workshops, and introduced the “NERDS” acronym that has represented the event since 2019. Earlier in his career, Dr. Song held positions of increasing responsibility at Merck and Johnson & Johnson, with experience across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Beijing, supporting global drug development across diverse therapeutic areas. He earned his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dr. Rui (Sammi) Tang, Astellas

Dr. Rui (Sammi) Tang is a seasoned drug developer and innovative pharmaceutical leader who has contributed to the successful development and approval of numerous therapies—bringing medicines from research to market that now reach millions of patients every day. With a proven track record of building high-performing teams and driving scientific and operational innovation, she delivers data-driven solutions that accelerate drug development and improve global health outcomes. As Senior Vice President and Global Head of Quantitative Sciences and Evidence Generation (QSEG) at Astellas Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Tang leads the company’s global data and evidence strategy across quantitative analytics, epidemiology, real-world evidence (RWE), biostatistics, programming, medical writing, scientific communication, data systems & enablement, and data management. She is at the forefront of applying Generative AI in regulatory and clinical documentation, AI/ML-powered analytics, and external data to optimize study design and development efficiency.

She also serves as Site Head of the Astellas Life Sciences Center (ALSC) in Cambridge, where she oversees full site operations and strategic direction across integrated teams including Research, Medical & Development, Business Development, and IT. Under her leadership, the ALSC drives innovation through internal collaboration and external partnerships with incubator labs, biotech start-ups, and academic institutions. A dedicated scientific leader, Dr. Tang serves on the Executive Committee for Data Science & AI at the American Statistical Association (ASA) and is co-founder of DahShu, a global nonprofit advancing data science research and education with over 5,000 members. Previously, Dr. Tang was Vice President and Global Head of Biometrics at Servier Pharmaceuticals and Therapeutic Area Head of Biostatistics at Shire. Earlier in her career, she contributed to drug development and statistical innovation at Vertex, Amgen, Mayo Clinic, and Merck—experiences that shaped her cross-functional leadership approach. Dr. Tang holds a PhD in Statistical Genetics from Michigan Technological University and an Executive MBA from MIT Sloan. She is also an Adjunct Professor at Yale University School of Public Health. With over 50 peer-reviewed publications and multiple patents, she is widely recognized for combining scientific depth with strategic leadership to deliver transformative therapies that improve lives worldwide.

Dr. Richard Zhang, Pfizer

Richard Zhang is the Statistics Group Lead for late phase clinical development in rare diseases at Pfizer. He has been in the pharmaceutical industry for over twenty years with exposure to hundreds of clinical trials spanning multiple therapeutical areas: Neuroscience, Pain, Rheumatology, Endocrine and IEM. He has extensive knowledge and experience in regulatory interactions and submissions. His research interests include innovative trial design, real world evidence, meta-analysis, data mining and modeling. Richard received his PhD in statistics from the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Ran Duan, Vertex

Ran Duan is currently the Director of biostatistics at Vertex Pharmaceuticals oversee multiple indications. Before join Vertex, Ran worked at Angitia, Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease and Eli Lilly and Company, where she supported the clinical development in multiple therapeutic areas including Bone disease, neurology, ophthalmology, and diabetes programs. She is an active member of the ASA Gene and Cell therapy working group. Her research interests include the innovative trial design for gene and cell therapy, rare disease, RWE generation and digital solutions for health care.

Dr. Ying Zhou, University of Connecticut

Ying Zhou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut. Before joining UConn, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on causal inference, particularly in complex data settings involving unmeasured confounding, misclassification error, time-varying treatments, etc.

Dr. Zhaoyang Teng, Astellas

Dr. Zhaoyang Teng, Senior Director of Biostatistics, currently leads the Medical Affairs Statistical Science team at Astellas. He brings extensive expertise across all phases of drug development (Phases I–III) and post-marketing activities, including global regulatory and HTA submissions, HEOR, market access, and global medical affairs. Before joining Astellas, Dr. Teng served as Senior Director of Biostatistics at Servier, where he led the LCM Biostatistics team for oncology—covering HEOR, Market Access, GMPA, and RWE analytics—as well as the APAC Biostatistics team based in Beijing, China. He also held positions at Takeda Pharmaceuticals earlier in his career. Dr. Teng received his PhD in Biostatistics from Boston University. His research interests include adaptive and seamless Phase 2/3 study designs, biomarker-driven designs, model-based meta-analysis, multi-regional clinical trials, enrollment prediction, indirect treatment comparisons (ITC), quantitative benefit-risk analysis, and the application of AI in drug development. He is an active member of several professional statistical communities, including ASA, BCASA, NESS, ICSA, Stat4Onc, SIP, NERDS and DISS, contributing to the advancement of the field and organizing local and global events.

Dr. Frank Fan, BMS

Dr. Yuna Wu, Galderma

Dr. Larry Han, Northeastern University

Larry Han is an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics in the Department of Public Health and Health Sciences at Northeastern University and an Affiliate Investigator in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center. His research develops statistical and machine learning methods to improve decision-making in public health and clinical medicine, with emphasis on causal inference, conformal inference, data integration, federated learning, and survival analysis. He received his PhD in Biostatistics from Harvard University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, and also holds degrees from Cambridge, Tsinghua, and UNC-Chapel Hill.

Dr. Xin Wang, AbbVie

Dr. Xin Wang is Senior Director, Statistics TA Head in Rheumatology at AbbVie. Xin received her Ph.D. in Statistics from Northwestern University. Xin is a motivated statistician and Team Leader with 18 years of drug development experience in pharmaceutical companies including AbbVie, BMS, Pfizer and Sanofi. She has extensive and unique cross TA experience spanning Cell Therapy, Hematology and Immunology, with a proven track record of leading 10+ successful NDA/sNDA/sBLA submissions and approvals developing best-in-class treatments including Breyanzi (CAR-T) and Rinvoq (Immunology). Her research interest includes multiple comparisons, gatekeeping procedures, dose-finding, missing data imputations, and adaptive designs.

Dr. Cong Han, Astellas

Dr. Susie Sinks, Biogen

Dr. Susie Sinks is currently a Director in Development Statistics at Biogen, where she has served as program lead in neuromuscular, multiple sclerosis and immunology therapeutic areas. Before joining Biogen in 2019, Susie worked in the FDA over 5 years for the Division of Metabolic and Endocrinology Products (DMEP) with specialty in diabetes and metabolic statistical review after receiving a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research interests include missing data, surrogacy modeling, benefit and risk assessment.

Dr. Hao Li, Boehringer Ingelheim

Dr. Li currently holds the position of Principal Clinical Data Scientist at Boehringer Ingelheim. In her current role, Dr. Li leads a Biostatistics and Data Science development team as the Product Owner for clinical portfolios developed for rare disease indications in inflammation. Dr. Li's academic credentials include a Master of Science (M.S.) and a Doctorate (Ph.D.) in Statistics, both earned from the University of Connecticut, Storrs. She achieved these degrees in December 2017 and August 2018, respectively. Beyond her work at Boehringer Ingelheim, Dr. Li actively contributes to the broader scientific community by serving as a reviewer for several academic journals and extending her work to publications.

Dr. Xiang Zhang, CSL Behring

Dr. Ally He, Hemab Therapeutics

Dr. Lin Wang, Insmed

Dr. Lin Wang currently serves as the Vice President and Head of Biometrics at Insmed. Prior to joining Insmed in 2023, She spent more than 17 years at Sanofi where she held positions of increasing responsibility, including as Global Biostatistics Head for Rare Diseases and Rare Blood Disorders. Lin has extensive clinical development experience in all stage of clinical development from pre-IND, global NDA/MAA submissions to approvals across multiple diseases for small, large molecules and gene therapies. Her research interests include rare disease clinical trial design and analysis methodology, count data, adaptive design. Lin earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Hui Zhang, Neurocrine Biosciences

Dr. Yingwen Dong, Sanofi

Yingwen Dong is the Global Head of Biostatistics in Rare Diseases and Rare Blood Disorders at Sanofi. Prior to this role, she served as the Deputy Global Head of Oncology Biostatistics in late phase at Sanofi. She has over 16 years of clinical development experience in pharmaceutical industry in multiple therapeutic areas including neurology, oncology, rare diseases and rare blood disorders. Her research interests are in the area of innovative clinical trial design and its application. She currently serves as ICSA representative on 2024 JSM programming committee, and the steering committee member for 2024 ASA biopharmaceutical section regulatory-industry statistical workshop. She received her Ph.D in statistics from University of Minnesota.

Dr. Sourav Santra, Sarepta Therapeutics

PhD Biostatistician with extensive experience in clinical development, Real-World Evidence, and work at major pharma, biotech, and CROs in the US and India. Currently at Sarepta Therapeutics.

Dr. Xiao Shan, Takeda

Dr. Ying Ma, Brown University

Dr. Haiying Wang, University of Connecticut

HaiYing Wang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut. He was an Assistant Professor in statistics at the University of New Hampshire from 2013 to 2017. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Statistics at the University of Missouri in 2013, and his M.S. from the Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006. His research interests include informative subdata selection for big data, model selection, model averaging, measurement error models, and semi-parametric regression.

Dr. Roy Tamura, University of South Florida

Roy Tamura is emeritus associate professor of biostatistics in the Health Informatics Institute at the University of South Florida. At the University of South Florida, he consulted extensively with researchers in type 1 diabetes, and with rare disease consortiums in Prader-Willi syndrome and vasculitis. Prior to joining the University of South Florida, he was a Research Fellow at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. His research interests are in the design and analysis of small sample clinical trials. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.