Photo: Villanova University

biostatistics

Michael Posner Receives 2023 Biostatistics Distinguished Alumni Award

Posner (SPH’06) is a highly respected educator and scholar, with a research portfolio spanning the fields of statistics, public health, and education.

The Department of Biostatistics at the School of Public Health has named Michael A. Posner (SPH’06) the recipient of the 2023 Biostatistics Distinguished Alumni Award. Posner, a professor of statistics and data science in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Villanova University, will accept the award and give a presentation of his work at SPH on October 26.

The annual award recognizes an alum from any graduate-level biostatistics program at Boston University whose career embodies SPH’s core purpose to “Think. Teach. Do. For the health of all.” This includes notable contributions to the field, such as publishing peer-reviewed articles, teaching and mentoring the next generation of biostatisticians, and doing work that impacts underserved populations.

“I am humbled and honored to receive the 2023 Biostatistics Distinguished Alumni Award,” says Posner. “I have felt supported and encouraged by the faculty and my peers, both during my time [at SPH] and afterwards, which I know is not a universal sentiment in academia.  So, thank you to the faculty and to the school for investing in me to help me get to where I am professionally today.”

As a PhD student in the Department of Biostatistics at SPH, Posner won the 2001 Dean’s Award for his dissertational research on the use of propensity scores. Today, he is a highly respected educator and scholar of nearly two decades, with a research portfolio that spans the fields of causal inference using propensity scores, statistics, statistics and the law, biostatistics, public health, health care research, and education.

“It is important for our department to take a moment each year to recognize the incredible accomplishments of our graduates. This not only inspires our current students, but also acknowledges our graduates’ contributions to the field. This year, we are very excited to do so in Dr. Posner’s honor,” says Scarlett Bellamy, professor of biostatistics and chair of the biostatistics department at SPH.

Through the years, Posner has received more than $4 million in grant funding for his research, including three six-figure, multi-year grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Most recently, he was named a co-principal investigator and director on a $600,000, three-year NSF grant supporting the project Motivational Attitudes in Statistics and Data Science Education Research (MASDER). The project is expected to lead to more effective, evidence-based pedagogies by producing one of the first instruments for measuring the full spectrum of teaching and learning in the budding field of data science education research.

“Our goal for the project is it will eventually impact some of the millions of students across the US who are taught statistics and/or data science annually, and lead to improved data literacy and a more competitive workforce with the skills needed to engage with data in its many forms,” said Posner of MASDER upon the announcement of the grant in 2020.

Posner has long been an enthusiastic champion of statistics education. In 2013, he founded Villanova’s Center for Statistics and Data Science Education. As director, he has enhanced the school’s statistics curricula as well as supplied much-needed educational resources for schoolteachers in the Greater Philadelphia area. His own teaching has earned him the Villanova University’s 2010 Faculty Award for Innovative Teaching, the Mathematical Association of America (MAA) 2012 Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching, the American Statistical Association (ASA) 2012 Waller Education Award, and the ASA Philadelphia Chapter 2023 Excellence in College Teaching Award.

In addition to his contributions to research and teaching, Posner has also served in leadership positions for various professional statistics organizations, including as chair of the ASA Section on Statistics and Data Science Education, chair of the MAA Special Interest Group for Statistics Education, associate editor for the Journal of Statistics Education (now the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education), and associate director for professional development for the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education. In 2017, he was selected as a fellow of the ASA, a significant honor given to just 0.03% of society members each year, for “outstanding leadership and mentorship in statistics education, for contributions to the field of statistics education research, and for service to the profession.”

Posner’s training at SPH solidified his passion for working in academia, he says. “Recognizing the work that I have done to get this award, as well as the work of so many other alumni who are promoting biostatistics and are surely deserving of it as well, is also recognizing the investment that BU puts into its students.”

The Biostatistics Distinguished Alumni Award celebration on October 26 will run from 11 – 1 pm in Hiebert Lounge and online.