Daniel Gillen Named Chancellor’s Professor

On July 1, 2022, Daniel Gillen, chair of the Department of Statistics in the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), was named a Chancellor’s Professor. The title recognizes faculty who have achieved acclaim for their accomplishments and who are highly likely to continue producing notable achievement in scholarship.

Gillen’s research focuses on developing and applying novel statistical methods — including survival analysis, longitudinal methods, sequential testing, and spatial risk estimation — for biomedical applications. His statistical methods research focuses primarily on valid and efficient statistical tools that are robust to commonly made assumptions. Among other achievements, his methodologic work has developed the underlying theory for censoring robust estimation in semi-parametric censored data models and adaptive sequential sampling methods for time-varying effects in clinical trials.

Gillen serves as the leader of the Data Management and Statistics Core at UCI Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, where he focuses on biomarker development and validation and is co-PI on a  multidisciplinary grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Recruiting and Retaining Participants from Disadvantaged Neighborhoods in Registries.” The project focuses on participant recruitment and retainment for Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (ADRD) research, examining what role recruitment registries for ADRD research can play in overcoming exclusions to improve research outcomes.

Gillen is also a special government employee (SGE) and adviser to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and he is active in working with industry sponsors to design and monitor international multisite clinical trials. In these roles, he applies his research to a wide range of clinical trial designs to investigate experimental therapies in multiple disease settings, including diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

— Shani Murray