SDS faculty embraces interdisciplinary teamwork, leveraging expertise in statistics and data science to advance innovative research addressing critical scientific and societal issues of our time.

WashU promotes this collaboration through several seed funding programs, and our faculty has been highly successful in these competitions. Here are two recent examples of high-impact research: 

Professor Bo Li Received Global Incubator Seed Grant: Professor Bo Li, along with Kuan Liu from the University of Toronto, received a Global Incubator Seed Grant. Their project, "Quantifying Joint Health Effects of Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke on Older Adults using Statistical and Machine Learning Approaches," aims to fill the research gap of evaluating the compound health effects of heat and smoke. It will advance statistical and machine learning methodology for environmental health by adapting causal inference approaches to continuous, spatially varying exposures

 Professor Nan Lin Awarded Geospatial Research Initiative Grant: Professor Nan Lin, collaborating with Patrick Fowler (Brown School), Guangli Zhang (Social Policy Institute), and Kenan Li (Saint Louis University), received a seed grant from the Geospatial Research Initiative. Their project, "Trajectory Analysis in Disaster Response: Uncovering Socioeconomic Disparities Through Geospatial Mobility Research," will examine movement patterns together with community socioeconomic data. The goal is to provide critical information to inform emergency planning and enhance community resilience.

SDS faculty are also actively participating in the Arts & Sciences TRIADS seed grant program, the Clinical and Translational Research Funding Program (CTRFP), among other grant programs. We hope that the seed funding provides a critical catalyst for future innovations and longer-term grant support for our faculty.