Samuel J. "Sam" Clark is a

demographer Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

with expertise in

epidemiology Epidemiology is the study and analysis of the distribution (who, when, and where), patterns and Risk factor (epidemiology), determinants of health and disease conditions in a defined population, and application of this knowledge to prevent dise ...

and

data science Data science is an interdisciplinary academic field that uses statistics, scientific computing, scientific methods, processing, scientific visualization, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge from potentially noisy, stru ...

. He has worked as a professor in the Department of Sociology at

The Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and the Department of Sociology at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. He is an expert on ascertaining

cause of death In law, medicine, and statistics, cause of death is an official determination of the conditions resulting in a human's death, which may be recorded on a death certificate. A cause of death is determined by a medical examiner. In rare cases, an ...

using verbal autopsy.

Education

Clark earned B.S. degrees in

engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

and

biology Biology is the scientific study of life and living organisms. It is a broad natural science that encompasses a wide range of fields and unifying principles that explain the structure, function, growth, History of life, origin, evolution, and ...

from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

(Caltech) in 1993 and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in

demography Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

in 1995 and 2001, respectively. His Ph.D. titled "An Investigation into the Impact of HIV on Population Dynamics in Africa" was supervised by Samuel H. Preston.

Career

In 2000, Clark started a five-year

postdoc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

at the Institute of Behavioral Science (IBS),

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a Public university, public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a Federated state, state, it is the fla ...

. During that time he worked with the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance Site in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

and the INDEPTH Network of health and demographic surveillance sites in Africa and Asia. He worked to maintain and grow both the site and the network and to investigate population and health issues affecting Africans. In 2005, Clark joined the faculty of the

as an

assistant professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

in the Department of Sociology and was promoted to

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

in 2011. In 2016, he was promoted to

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

and moved to the Department of Sociology at

. Clark has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and comments, and his combined work has been cited more than 5,000 times.

Research

Clark's research explores the epi-demographic history of populations living in Africa and develops new mathematical and statistical methods for demography and epidemiology. He has contributed to UNICEF's subnational estimates of child mortality and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Population Division's World Population Prospects global demographic estimates and projections.

openVA

Clark leads the openVA Team that develops new computational and statistical methods (e.g. InSilicoVA) to automate cause of death ascertainment using data from verbal autopsy and develops tools to integrate automated verbal autopsy methods into large-scale routine vital statistics systems. The openVA suite is freely available, open-source software that implements all commonly used tools to automate cause ascertainment using data from verbal autopsy interviews. The openVA Pipeline integrates the cause-ascertainment algorithms into an automated workflow that moves deaths with verbal autopsy from an Open Data Kit (ODK) server through cause assignment and on to the

District Health Information System DHIS2 (also spelled DHIS 2, formerly District Health Information Software) is a free and open-source software platform for the collection, reporting, analysis and dissemination of aggregate and individual-level data. The most common use of DHIS2 ...

version 2 (DHIS-2). The data are collected using ODK and provided to a variety of users and policymakers through dashboards by DHIS-2. It is feasible for countries without traditional vital statistics systems to implement verbal autopsy and use these tools to fully automate cause ascertainment and descriptive analysis of the

burden of disease Disease burden is the impact of a health problem as measured by financial cost, Mortality rate, mortality, morbidity, or other indicators. It is often quantified in terms of quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) or disability-adjusted life years ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Samuel J. Living people University of Pennsylvania alumni Ohio State University faculty 1969 births