Biostatistician to Head University of Michigan School of Public Health
F. Dubois Bowman, former chair of the biostatistics department at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, will become the 12th dean of the University of Michigan School of Public Health beginning October 15.
Bowman is a world-leading researcher in developing and applying biostatistical methods for complex neuroimaging data. These have helped reveal the patterns of disruption in psychiatric diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s and
mental disorders such as depression. As he noted in the Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application, “Neuroimaging data
present numerous challenges for statistical analysis, including the vast amounts of data collected from each individual and the complex temporal and spatial dependencies present in the data.”
Commenting on his appointment, Bowman said, “We live in a time when public health concerns about environmental threats, substance misuse, emerging infections,
obesity, aging, mental health, noncommunicable diseases, and health care coverage all loom large. As one of the world’s pre-eminent schools of public health, U-M is poised to play a leading role in providing solutions by generating evidence
through science, driving policy, education, and engagement at local community, national, and global levels.”
Bowman earned a BS in mathematics from Morehouse College, where he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He earned a master’s in biostatistics from the University of Michigan and a PhD in biostatistics from The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill. He is an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association, served as president of the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society, and received the James Grizzle Distinguished Alumni Award from The University
of North Carolina. He has also served as associate editor of Biometrics and the Journal of the American Statistical Association.