2022

state of the department


OVERALL

DEPARTMENT STRUCTURE

  • Associate Chairs for Research and for Education named with detailed roles adopted.

DEPARTMENT STRUCTURE PLANNING

  • Three focused meetings held (mission/vision/values; goals; areas for growth) and follow up work at faculty meetings. Goals and areas for growth being synthesized.


VISION STATEMENT FINALIZED

The vision of our department is to advance public health knowledge and solutions and to train the next generation of epidemiologists and biostatisticians to achieve equitable health in our state, country, and world.


VALUES SELECTED

Collaboration, DEI (Diversity-Equity-Inclusion), Excellence, Integrity, Respect, Transparency
(Those that area also MSU values are in bold type)

 

HONORS/AWARDS WINNERS AND NOMINEES

  • Dr. Barrett Montgomery received the Anthony Family Fund award.
  • Nomination of Jill Hamilton for the Jack Breslin Distinguished Service Award.
  • Dr. Nicole Talge nominated for the Graduate School Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award.
  • Dr. Zhehui Luo nominated for the College Research Excellence Award.


HIRING/RECRUITMENT/RETIREMENTS

  • Dr. Xioayu Liang hired October 2022 (Biostatistics)
  • Continued biostatistics search for second line.
  • Provost “1855 Professorship” initiative search began: Quantitative scientist focused on evaluation of policies and programs in joint effort of Economics, Psychology, and our Epi/Biostats department (biostats focus).
  • Dr. Nigel Paneth’s retirement symposium, delayed by COVID, held Oct 2022

 

PROMOTIONS

  • Promotions of Dr. Nicole Talge to Associate Professors with tenure

 

HENRY FORD AFFILIATION

  • R25 jointly with HFH submitted by Drs. de los Campos/Levin.
  • Henry Ford Health System affiliation and appointments completed.
  • Ford faculty included in tab on our web site.
  • Web site welcome noting Ford affiliation.
  • Associate chairs/chairs attended HFF and MSU faculty meetings.
  • Joint planning of highly successful first joint event held in December.

RESEARCH

  • More than $6.8 million annual external funding by department principal investigators for calendar year 2022 (an increase from the $4 million in 2021).
  • Department faculty awarded 22 new external grants/contracts as PI and 12 new co-investigator grants/contracts.
  • Average external funding for faculty AY ~26 percent (decline from 30% in 2021).
  • Transition to post awards staff in HCRS for new funding.

EDUCATION

  • In 2022, 22 graduate students in our programs completed their degrees!
    • o 5 MS Biostats
    • o 6 MS Epidemiology (including 1 dual degree student)
    • o 1 PhD Biostatistics
    • o 10 PhD Epidemiology
  • Our students and graduates were awarded ~$100,000 in Graduate Office Fellowships and Dissertation Awards from MSU.
  • Epi curriculum review working group recommendations endorsed by EBCC and the full faculty. The introductory Population Health course, one of the recommendations, was taught for the first time by Drs. Jean Kerver and Kelly Hirko in Fall 2022.
  • Department is participating in Strategic Program Assessment by the Graduate School (review began in Fall 2022 to be completed by summer 2023).
  • BEAMS (Biostatisticians and Epidemiologists at Michigan State; https://epibio.msu.edu/beams/ became our new student organization name, reflecting both biostatistics and epidemiology in the name.
  • NICHD Reproductive Developmental Sciences T32 renewed at MSU (PIs: Keith Latham and Asgerally Fazleabas) and included slots for our PhD students. One of our students was selected as a trainee to start Jan 2023.
  • 2nd cohort of EQ-BEST (undergraduate DEI internship) -- with four interns hired.



SERVICE

  • Our faculty provided service on several college and university committees.
  • RPT committee drafted Annual Reviews of faculty on behalf of the chair. RPT committee wrote a report recommending structure and process for future Annual Reviews.
  • Bylaws Working Group began October 2022, plan to complete recommendations by May 2023.