BIOS alumnus Bowman selected to lead Columbia’s biostatistics department
Jan. 29, 2014
DuBois Bowman, PhD, alumnus of UNC’s public health school, has been named professor and chair of the biostatistics department at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, effective Jan. 1.
Bowman, who received a doctorate in biostatistics at UNC in 2000, served on the biostatistics and bioinformatics faculty in Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health from 2000 to 2013. Beginning in 2007, he was founding director of the Rollins School’s Center for Biomedical Imaging Statistics. He also held a faculty position in the neuroscience program in the graduate division of biological and biomedical sciences at Emory.
Bowman has conducted research on the interface of neuroimaging and a wide range of health topics, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, schizophrenia and cocaine addiction, among others. He also has been instrumental in developing biostatistical methods for brain-imaging data, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and positron emission tomography (PET).
He is president in 2014 of the Eastern North American Region (ENAR) of the International Biometric Society, the primary professional society for biostatistics, and is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association. He has served as associate editor of the journal Biometrics and as associate editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, in the application and case studies section.
“I am excited to lead a department that has a commitment to methodological and collaborative research, educating the next generation of scholars, and service to our profession and society,” Bowman said.” I truly value the training that I received at UNC and the relationships that I have developed over the years with faculty members and alumni.”
Michael Kosorok, PhD, W.R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor and chair of the Gillings School’s Department of Biostatistics, said he and the UNC biostatistics faculty were proud of Bowman’s accomplishments and honored to have him as an alumnus.
“Dr. Bowman has excelled in every dimension of professionalism and scholarship, and we expect him to continue to be a leader in the field for many years to come,” Kosorok said.