Stephenson receives junior researcher poster award at Bayesian nonparametrics conference

July 7, 2015

On June 25, UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health student Briana Stephenson took home one of only three junior researcher poster awards presented at the 10^th Conference on Bayesian Nonparametrics.

Briana Stephenson

Stephenson is a doctoral student in the Department of Biostatistics at the Gillings School. She shared her poster, which explored the reproducibility of Dirichlet process latent class models across populations, at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C.

“Bayesian conferences are well-known for their high-energy poster sessions,” said Stephenson’s adviser, Amy Herring, PhD, associate chair and professor in the biostatistics department. “Briana was grilled by some of the top experts in nonparametric Bayes inference worldwide.”

The Bayesian nonparametrics conference is a bi-annual international meeting that convenes leading experts and talented young researchers working on applications and theory of nonparametric Bayesian statistics.

“It was a humbling experience to be surrounded by so many amazing statisticians from around the world and to learn about their work,” Stephenson shared. “I received a lot of great feedback that will help me move forward in my own research.”

She also won a book and a $500 cash prize for her poster presentation.

At the Gillings School, Stephenson is currently working with nonparametric methods to describe food intake data for the derivation of dietary patterns in the United States. According to her adviser and the conference judges, her future in biostatistics is bright.

“One of the judges mentioned to me afterwards how well [Briana] handled questions and comments on her poster,” added Herring. “I am delighted she was honored with a poster prize in recognition of her innovative work!”