Heidi A Hanson

Bio

I am the Group Lead of the Biostatistics and Multiscale Systems Modeling Group in the Computing and Computational Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). I hold adjunct appointments in the Department of Population Health Sciences, Sociology, and Surgery at the University of Utah. My training and experience is in the fields of demography, statistics, familial analyses, biomedical informatics, -omics, and life course epidemiology allow me to bring a unique set of expertise to building tools to identify populations at high risk for developing pancreatic cancer. I am currently the technical lead on DOE-National Cancer Institute MOSSAIC, focused on advancing computing, predictive machine learning/deep learning (ML/DL) models, and large-scale computational simulations for NCI-supported cancer research. 

My research has utilized data science and large, population level datasets to: 1) investigate temporal patterns in cancer risk and aging; 2) explore familial clustering of disease; 3) examine environmental determinants of health; 4) show the importance of statistical model selection and rigorous methodology; 5) develop new techniques to investigate the role of the environment in heritability of longevity; and 6) develop new methods for identifying patterns of multi-phenotype clustering in families. My research emphases include understanding how environmental influences throughout the life course affect later life health and the health of future generations, genetic and environmental risk factors for cancer risk, and familial, community, and socioeconomic factors affecting health outcomes.