Zach Ward Successfully Defends Dissertation

Headshot of Zach Ward.

Zach Ward, doctoral student in Decision Science/Health Policy, successfully defended his thesis, “Computational Epidemiology: Methods and Applications for Global Health.” Overseen by Sue Goldie (chair), Rifat Atun, and Gary King, his dissertation presented the development and application of simulation methods applied to three problems in global health: obesity in the United States, global childhood cancer, global maternal health, and concluded with a chapter describing Amua, an open-source modelling framework for decision science. His dissertation research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine and Lancet Oncology (see links below). Ward will continue his work at CHDS as a Research Scientist as of February, 2021.

Learn more: Read Ward’s published dissertation research:

Simulation of Growth Trajectories of Childhood Obesity into Adulthood

Projected US State-Level Prevalence of Adult Obesity and Severe Obesity

Estimating the Total Incidence of Global Childhood Cancer: A Simulation-Based Analysis

Global Childhood Cancer Survival Estimates and Priority-Setting: A Simulation-Based Analysis

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