Laura F White, PhD
Professor, Biostatistics - Boston University School of Public Health
Biography
Laura Forsberg White, PhD, is a Professor of Biostatistics at Boston University and co-director of the graduate program in Biostatistics. She is the associate director of the Population Health Data Science Program and directs the Data Science and Surveillance Core of the Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases. Her research focuses on developing statistical tools to better understand the transmission dynamics and epidemiology of infectious diseases and substance use disorders. This includes the development of novel methodologies for the detection of disease outbreaks, as well as the application statistical methods for public health surveillance systems, including spatial statistics and time series. Dr. White's work includes applications and collaborations in Tuberculosis, Hepatitis C, HIV, and substance use disorders. She works with several large international studies focused on Tuberculosis, is part of the Boston Providence Center for AIDS Research, and a CDC CFA-funded Center of Excellence. She leads her own research group focused on developing statistical methods to better understand TB transmission and burden, as well as Covid-19 transmission dynamics. At SPH, she teaches Public Health Surveillance: A Methods Based Approach (BS 728).
Education
- Harvard University, PhD Field of Study: Biostatistics
- Harvard School of Public Health, SM Field of Study: Biostatistics
- Utah State University, BS Field of Study: Mathematics/Statistics
Classes Taught
- SPHBS728
Publications
- Published on 8/29/2025
Niemand N, Rooney JA, Malatesta S, Rawoot N, Bouton TC, Ragan EJ, Carney T, White LF, Farhat M, Horsburgh CR, Myers B, Warren RM, Jacobson KR. Contamination rates in serially sampled sputum specimens obtained during tuberculosis treatment to capture culture conversion. Microbiol Spectr. 2025 Oct 07; 13(10):e0096925. PMID: 40879468.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 8/1/2025
Tzelios CA, Malatesta S, Carney T, White LF, Weber SE, Thomson S, Theron D, Myers B, Parry CDH, Warren RM, Horsburgh CR, Farhat MR, Jacobson KR. Patient Determinants and Effects on Adherence of Adverse Drug Reactions to Tuberculosis Treatment: A Prospective Cohort Analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2025 Aug 01; 81(1):167-175. PMID: 39973802.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/13/2025
Horsburgh CR, E Jenkins H, Martinez L, White LF. Data-driven targets for reducing the global burden of TB. IJTLD Open. 2025 Jun; 2(6):352-358. PMID: 40530384.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/11/2025
Campbell JI, Garing A, Lavache D, Bahad S, Hofman M, Haberer JE, Brooks MB, Sinha P, White LF, Sabharwal V, Tschampl CA, Horsburgh CR, Jenkins HE, Jacobson KR. Social Vulnerability Modifies the Effects of Geographic Proximity on Engagement in Latent Tuberculosis Infection Care in a United States Safety Net Healthcare Network. Open Forum Infect Dis. 2025 Jul; 12(7):ofaf347. PMID: 40606058.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 6/2/2025
Zwick H, O'Dea R, Barocas JA, Flam-Ross JM, Chatterjee A, Walley AY, Harris RA, Schackman BR, White LF, Chrysanthopoulou SA, Assoumou SA, Murphy SM, Morgan JR, Baptiste D, Carroll M, Linas BP. Health and Economic Outcomes of Addressing Encampments of Individuals Using Opioids. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jun 02; 8(6):e2517095. PMID: 40577017.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 5/30/2025
Tabackman A, Gupte AN, Thangakunam B, Babu SP, Du X, Paradkar M, Shivakumar SVBY, Gaikwad S, Ezhumalai K, Ponnuraja C, Cox S, Gupte N, Tornheim JA, Dauphinais MR, Gupta A, Christopher DJ, Kornfeld H, Mave V, Viswanathan V, Ellner JJ, White LF, Padmapriyadarsini C, Sinha P, Sarkar S. Impact of premorbid nutritional status on TB severity. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2025 May 30; 29(6):265-270. PMID: 40495301.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 4/20/2025
Thomson SJ, Mistry R, Bayly H, Overbeck V, Sagar M, Schechter-Perkins EM, White LF, Jacobson KR, Bouton TC. Barriers to recruitment of an observational SARS-CoV-2 emergency department cohort at Boston Medical Center. BMC Emerg Med. 2025 Apr 20; 25(1):68. PMID: 40254607.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 4/1/2025
Jurecka C, Cavana E, Zhang Y, Erdman EA, Aytha Swathi P, Barocas JA, White LF. Rethinking Vulnerability: Using Factor Analysis to Assess Census Tract-Level Vulnerability. Public Health Rep. 2025 Apr 01; 333549251313986. PMID: 40166917.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 3/30/2025
Yuan L, Stoddard M, Sarkar S, Egeren DV, Mangalaganesh S, Nolan RP, Rogers MS, Hather G, White LF, Chakravarty A. The Impact of Vaccination Frequency on COVID-19 Public Health Outcomes: A Model-Based Analysis. Vaccines (Basel). 2025 Mar 30; 13(4). PMID: 40333247.
Read At: PubMed
- Published on 3/27/2025
Madushani RWMA, Wang J, Weitz M, Linas BP, White LF, Chrysanthopoulou SA. Empirical calibration of a simulation model of opioid use disorder. PLoS One. 2025; 20(3):e0310763. PMID: 40146669.
Read At: PubMed
View 185 more publications:View Full Profile at BUMC
News & In the Media
- Published on March 11, 2025
- Published on March 8, 2025
- Published on February 15, 2025
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Published on September 6, 2024
EEE and West Nile Virus: Understanding the Increase in Mosquito-borne Diseases
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Published on September 22, 2023
Professors Receive CDC Grant for Infectious Disease Predictive Modeling Project
- Published on September 19, 2023
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Published on August 9, 2023
Providence/Boston Center for AIDS Research Receives $9.2M from NIH
- Published on March 31, 2023
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Published on September 1, 2022
Pfizer and SPH Partner to Support Graduate Study in Biostatistics
- Published on April 15, 2022
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Published on April 12, 2022
Is Five Days of COVID Isolation Enough? New BU Study Has Some Answers
- Published on March 10, 2022
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Published on January 19, 2021
More Evidence for Masks—and Why They’re Not Enough on Their Own
- Published on September 16, 2020
- Published on June 2, 2020
- Published on May 20, 2020
- Published on April 7, 2020
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Published on October 31, 2018
In Massachusetts, Nearly 5 Percent of People Over 11 Abuse Opioids
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Published on October 31, 2018
Study: Nearly 5 Percent of Mass. Residents Struggle with Opioid Abuse
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Published on October 26, 2018
New Study Suggests Opioid Addiction in Mass. Is Much Worse Than Thought
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Published on October 26, 2018
Study: 4.6 Percent of Massachusetts Population Has Opioid Use Disorder
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Published on October 26, 2018
Study: Nearly 6% of Bristol County, Mass. Residents Addicted to Opioids
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Published on October 26, 2018
In Massachusetts, Almost 1 in 20 Adults and Older Kids Abuse Opioids
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Published on October 26, 2018
Study: 4.6 Percent of Massachusetts Residents Have Opioid Use Disorder
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Published on October 26, 2018
Nearly 1 in 20 Massachusetts Residents Has Opioid Use Disorder
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Published on September 12, 2018
Identifying Drug-Resistant Hotspots Can Provide Roadmap to Reduce Tuberculosis
- Published on June 25, 2018
- Published on February 27, 2017
- Published on April 20, 2016
- Published on December 7, 2015
- Published on November 13, 2014