Mark Johannes van der Laan is the Jiann-Ping Hsu/Karl E. Peace Professor of

Biostatistics Biostatistics (also known as biometry) is a branch of statistics that applies statistical methods to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of biological experiments, the collection and analysis of data from those experimen ...

and

Statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. He has made contributions to

survival analysis Survival analysis is a branch of statistics for analyzing the expected duration of time until one event occurs, such as death in biological organisms and failure in mechanical systems. This topic is called reliability theory, reliability analysis ...

semiparametric In statistics, a semiparametric model is a statistical model that has Parametric statistics, parametric and nonparametric components. A statistical model is a parameterized family of distributions: \ indexed by a statistical parameter, parameter \t ...

statistics,

multiple testing Multiple comparisons, multiplicity or multiple testing problem occurs in statistics when one considers a set of statistical inferences simultaneously or estimates a subset of parameters selected based on the observed values. The larger the number ...

, and

causal inference Causal inference is the process of determining the independent, actual effect of a particular phenomenon that is a component of a larger system. The main difference between causal inference and inference of association is that causal inference an ...

. He also developed the targeted maximum likelihood estimation methodology. He is a founding editor of the Journal of Causal Inference.

Education and career

He received his M.Sc. in mathematics in 1990 and his Ph.D. in statistics in 1993, both from

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

. Between 1988 and 1989, Laan was studied as an exchange student at

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

. Laan's Ph.D. thesis was supervised by Richard D. Gill with a dissertation titled "Efficient and Inefficient Estimation in Semiparametric Models". During his Ph.D., Laan conducted research at the

Mathematical Sciences Research Institute The Simons Laufer Mathematical Sciences Institute (SLMath), formerly the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI), is an independent nonprofit mathematical research institution on the University of California campus in Berkeley, Califor ...

at the

, where he was advised by

Peter J. Bickel Peter John Bickel (born 1940) is an American statistician and Professor of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. Bickel has made contributions to Bootstrapping (statistics), bootstrapping, robust statistics, machine learning, and ...

. Laan became an assistant professor in biostatistics at

in 1994, and was promoted to associated professor in 1998, and professor in 2000. He became the Jiann-Ping Hsu/Karl E. Peace Endowed Chair in Biostatistics. Since 2016, Laan became the academic director of the Center of Targeted Learning in Precision Health at

Honors and awards

He received the

COPSS Presidents' Award The COPSS Presidents' Award is given annually by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies to a young statistician in recognition of outstanding contributions to the profession of statistics Statistics (from German language, Ger ...

in 2005, the

Mortimer Spiegelman Award The American Public Health Association (APHA) is a Washington, D.C.–based professional membership and advocacy organization for public health professionals in the United States. APHA is the largest professional organization of public health pr ...

in 2004, and the van Dantzig Award in 2005.

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laan, Mark J. van der 1967 births Living people Dutch statisticians Utrecht University alumni UC Berkeley School of Public Health faculty Biostatisticians