This CWS session highlights women and their significant contributions to Bayesian statistics and its applications in Health and Environmental Sciences. Organized by Vanda Lourenço, an Assistant Professor NOVA University of Lisbon, the session brings together four distinguished speakers from North America and Europe, along with Umut Özbek, President of the Caucus for Women in Statistics and Data Science (CWS), serving as the session chair.

Alexandra Posekany finished her master in Technical Mathematics at Vienna University of Technology, obtaining a PhD in collaboration with Vienna University of Natural Resources in the field of probabilistic modelling in bioinformatics. Later, she worked as a researcher at WU University of Economics Vienna, Danuba University Krems in collaboration with the medical university of Vienna and the Austrian ministry of health. Currently, she is employed as assistant professor at Vienna University of Technology. 

Vanda Inácio is Reader in Statistics at the University of Edinburgh since 2016. Previously, she was an Assistant Professor at PUC Chile (2012–2016). Vanda received a PhD in Statistics from Universidade de Lisboa and a BSc in Applied Mathematics from NOVA University of Lisbon. Her main research interests are Bayesian (nonparametric) statistics, computational statistics, and biostatistics, with an emphasis on the statistical evaluation of medical tests. Vanda’s work has been published in some of the top-tier journals in the field, like Annals of Applied Statistics, Bayesian Analysis, Biostatistics, Biometrics, Statistics in Medicine, and Statistical Science.

Alexandra Schmidt is Professor of Biostatistics and holds the endowed University Chair in the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University, Canada. She works with the development of statistical models for highly structured spatial and spatiotemporal processes. She is an Elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association (2020) and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (2010). She was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Medal (2017) from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and the Environment and the Abdel El-Shaarawi Young Investigator Award (2008), from The International Environmetrics Society. She was the 2015 President of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.

Veronica J. Berrocal is Professor at University of California, UCI, US. She obtained her PhD at University of Washington in 2007, and has been a postdoc in the Research Triangle Park area (in North Carolina) from 2007 to 2010, first being a postdoc for one year at the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) and then a postdoc for two years at Duke University/SAMSI.  Veronica works in the area of spatial and spatiotemporal statistics, environmental statistics, and spatial epidemiology. Her research work is focused on modeling geophysical processes as well as the impact of environmental and social factors on health. Veronica is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, and has recently been appointed as a member of the Science Advisory Board for the US EPA.
Together, these speakers offer diverse perspectives and expertise, making this session a valuable opportunity for attendees to engage with cutting-edge research and explore new avenues in Bayesian statistics and its applications in Health and Environmental Sciences.