| 2025 |
Arnab Aich |
PhD Biostatistics, Florida State University; Mentor Yuan Zhang |
As part of his internship, Arnab developed RMSTSS, a comprehensive R package and interactive
Shiny web application designed to meet the growing demand for current power and sample
size resources in clinical study design. This project is based on the Restricted Mean
Survival Time (RMST) and offers an easy-to-understand and robust alternative to the
traditional hazard ratio. The software suite enables research scientists to design
complex studies by implementing advanced statistical methods. It accommodates a wide
range of user needs, featuring both fast analytical computations and robust simulation-based
bootstrapping techniques. Additionally, the accompanying Shiny program provides a
user-friendly point-and-click interface, making these advanced methods accessible
to non-programmers. Users can easily upload data, configure visual analysis settings,
create interactive survival and power plots, and generate downloadable PDF analysis
reports with just a single click. Mr. Aich was hired as a Staff Statistician in our
department in the summer of 2026. |
| 2025 |
Abhirath Anand |
MSc Biostatistics, University of Michigan; Mentors Gregory Farage and Saunak Sen |
Abhirath worked on developing BigRiverMetabolomics.jl, a Julia package designed for
end-to-end workflows with metabolomics matrices. This is an umbrella package that
depends on two component packages that were also developed during the internship –
BigRiverJunbi.jl and BigRiverMakie.jl. BigRiverJunbi.jl is designed for seamless data
preparation with ‘omics data, and includes features like data imputation, normalization,
transformation, and standardization. BigRiverMakie.jl uses the Makie.jl plotting ecosystem
to create visualizations of the data and the resulting analyses. Mr. Anand is currently
a first-year Ph.D. student in Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan in the
Snitkin Lab. |
| 2025 |
Shengqiang Chen |
PhD Biostatistics, University of Memphis; Mentors Chi-Yang Chiu and Qi Zhao |
During his internship, Shengqiang contributed to research investigating the role of
metabolomics in the development and progression of sarcopenia—a condition characterized
by the progressive loss of muscle mass, strength, and function in older adults. To
explore this, a Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) model was employed to simultaneously
evaluate three key indicators of sarcopenia. This modeling approach accounted for
the potential correlation between outcome errors, enhancing statistical efficiency
and providing a more comprehensive understanding of the potential role of short-chain
fatty acids (SCFAs) in sarcopenia. |
| 2025 |
Ziyi Zhang |
MPH Data Science, UNC Chapel Hill; Mentors Gregory Farage and Saunak Sen |
During her internship, Zoey worked on establishing a biomedical-focused Dataverse
platform, a centralized, web-based resource designed to improve the discoverability
and usability of publicly available health datasets. Her primary project involved
building a structured public dataset inventory and conducting a user evaluation to
ensure the platform’s accessibility, reproducibility, and equity in data use. In parallel,
she initiated a new project on Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) DNA methylation,
laying the groundwork for data downloading, processing, and statistical modeling to
identify potential biomarkers and investigate epigenetic patterns. |
| 2024 |
Durbadal Ghosh |
PhD Biostatistics, Florida State University; Mentors Gregory Farage and Saunak Sen |
During his internship, Durbadal contributed to the BigRiverQTL.jl Julia package designed
to streamline quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis. BigRiverQTL.jl integrates multiple
functionalities, including preprocessing, genome scans, and visualization tools, to
facilitate efficient and accessible QTL and eQTL analysis within the Julia programming
environment. He also contributed toward process improvements to the package FlxQTL.jl,
a package for multivariate and longitudinal trait analyses. Dr. Ghosh is currently
a Postdoctoral Fellow and Adjunct Faculty member at St. Jude. |
| 2024 |
Shanti Sree-Edara |
MPH Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of Southern Mississippi; Mentors Kimberly
Kelly and Chi-Yang Chiu |
Shanti conducted a study on the impact of gift card challenges on the quality and
quantity of research. Deployed a Qualtrics survey to NIH-funded researchers and other
research groups, analyzed the data, performed cross-tabulation and ordinal regression,
and presented the findings. At the end of her internship she worked on a Qualtrics
survey for a skin cancer awareness project — pre and post intervention — and conducted
literature reviews. |
| 2024 |
Yinan Chen |
MSc Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Mentors Zhu Wang and Lauren
Bell |
Ivy examined trends in drug overdose deaths related to illicitly manufactured fentanyls
(IMFs) among adolescents. She built a linear model to analyze the changes in drug
use across this demographic. At the end of her project she built an interactive web
application in R Shiny to promote awareness and public engagement in drug overdose
deaths. Ms. Chen is currently an EPS Operation Analyst at International Bank of Chicago. |
| 2023 |
Galvin Li |
MS Statistics, University of Virginia; mentors Chi-Yang Chiu and Feng Liu-Smith |
NHANES data analysis to investigate the association of sex hormones with skin cancers.
Galvin built multiple logistic regression to determine the association of E2, T and
T/E2 levels with melanoma risk, adjusting to other relevant variables and examining
potential gender-based differences. A similar analysis was performed using non-melanoma
skin cancer as the outcome. Mr. Li is currently a medical student at UTHSC. |
| 2023 |
Harper Kolehmainen |
BS, Rhodes College; mentors Gregory Farage and Saunak Sen |
Interactive Interface for Genome Scans using Pluto.jl and BulkLMM.jl packages. Harper
created an interface for the Pluto.jl and BulkLMM.jl packages in Julia. Additional
improvements included documentation and methodological improvisations as well as interface/API
changes. Harper is currently an AI Software Engineer at AutoStore. |
| 2023 |
Miyeon Yeon |
PhD Candidate Biostatistics, Florida State University; mentor Hyo Young Choi |
Assessment of mRNA degradation in FFPE tissue. Miyeon examined the RNA-seq data paired
in FFPE and fresh frozen primary tumor tissue obtained from a subset of TCGA. She
performed genome-wide comparisons of gene expression profiles between FFPE tissue
and fresh frozen tissue using unsupervised/supervised clustering methods. The project
looked at gene-specific as well as sample-specific degradation using SCISSOR and identified
severely degraded samples in both cohorts, looking for association with multiple factors
such as total gene length, 3’ UTR length, GC concentration, etc. All analyses were
performed in R/R Markdown. Dr. Yeon is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at UTHSC. |
| 2023 |
Siling Liu |
PhD Student Statistics, Michigan State University; MSc Computational Science and Engineering,
Rice University; mentor Qi Zhao |
This internship focused on analyzing data from the CANDLE project entitled “Placental
Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Early Childhood Body Mass Index Growth Trajectories
and Overweight/Obesity Risk”. After completing her internship with us, she continued
on to a PhD in Statistics program at Michigan State University. |
| 2022 |
Philip Crawford |
Medical Student '23 University of Tennessee Health Science Center and MS Operations
Research, George Mason; mentors Saunak Sen and Jay Fowke |
Investigating the social and individual causes of benign prostatic hyperplasia in
black and white men. Analyses used existing data collected in Memphis and Nashville,
TN, and utilized data science methods to explore and identify race differences in
the causes of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Dr. Crawford is currently a Resident Physician
at UT Health San Antonio. |
| 2022 |
Chenhao Zhao |
MSc, Dartmouth University; mentors Saunak Sen and Gregory Farage |
Chenhao worked on the Matrix Linear Model package for Julia (MatrixLM.jl). Mr. Zhao
expanded the documentation, increased user friendliness and created a case study to
showcase MLM's benefits. The case study investigated the association between Nonalcoholic
fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients with type II diabetes and specific pathways and
patient characteristics. Chenhao has been a Staff Statistician at UTHSC since 2025. |
| 2021 |
Nadeesha Thewarapperuma |
PhD student, University of Kansas Medical Center; mentors Xiaoyu Liang and Chi-Yang
Chiu |
Nadeesha performed an epigenome-wide association study for identifying oral and pharyngeal
carcinoma-related CpGs by utilizing functional data analysis techniques. Ms. Thewarapperuma
is a current Ph.D. candidate in Biostatistics & Data Science at the University of
Kansas Medical Center. |
| 2021 |
Winston Miller |
MS student, University of Memphis; mentors Mehmet Kocak and Fridtjof Thomas |
Winston developed an R package bigBERD for generating automated biostatistic report
templates. Mr. Miller is currently a Ph.D. student at Arkansas State University. |
| 2021 |
Ye Eun Bae |
PhD student, Florida State University; mentor Saunak Sen |
Ye Eun developed a statistical method for genetic analysis of allotetraploid species
using data from switchgrass, a grass species native to North America used as biofuel.
Ms. Bae is currently a Senior Biostatistician at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics. |
| 2021 |
Zifan Yu |
MS student, University of Washington; mentors Saunak Sen and Tom Juenger of UT Austin |
Zifan developed a fast computational algorithm in the Julia programming language for
modeling large data matrices common in high-throughput biological experiments. Zifan
“Fred” Yu worked in our department as a scientific programmer in 2022 and is currently
a Ph.D. student in Data Science and Engineering at the Bredesen Center, mentored by
Saunak Sen. |
| 2020 |
(Internship paused due to COVID-19) |
(Internship paused due to COVID-19) |
(Internship paused due to COVID-19) |
| 2019 |
Yunusa Olufadi |
PhD student, University of Memphis; mentor Fridtjof Thomas |
Yunusa developed a model of kidney failure. Mr. Olufadi is currently a Biostatistician
at St. Jude. |
| 2019 |
Luhang Han |
PhD student, University of Memphis; mentor Chi-Yang Chiu |
Luhang developed a pipeline for analyzing NIH dbGaP data. Ms. Han is currently a Data
Analyst at UTHSC. |
| 2018 |
Courtney Gale |
Recent graduate of Furman University, 2018; mentor Saunak Sen |
Courtney worked on statistical methods for activity and weight loss data. Ms. Gale
previously worked at UTHSC as a scientific programmer and is currently a Biostatistician
at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. |
| 2017 |
Alemayehu Wolde |
PhD student, University of Memphis, 2018; mentor Mehmet Kocak |
Alemayehu developed statistical methods for growth curve modeling in the early years
of life. Mr. Wolde is a Statistical Programmer at Sarah Cannon Research Institute. |
| 2016 |
Emily Hanson |
Undergraduate student, Rhodes College; mentor Saunak Sen |
Emily developed the R/lcest package for analysis of bivariate left-censored data.
Ms. Hanson was currently an Actuarial Analyst at Willis Towers Watson and is currently
an Economics Ph.D. student at the University of Western Ontario. |
