Susan S. Ellenberg, PhD

Emerita Professor of Biostatistics, Medical Ethics and Health Policy

Dr. Ellenberg's research interests have focused on issues in the design and analysis of clinical trials, and on assessment of medical product safety. Particular areas of interest include efficient trial designs, interim monitoring and the operation of data monitoring committees, evaluation of surrogate endpoints, ethical issues in clinical research, and special issues in trials of cancer and AIDS therapies, and of vaccines. She is an associate editor of Clinical Trials and of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Ellenberg is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Clinical Trials, and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. She has served as president of the Society for Clinical Trials and the Eastern North American Region of the International Biometric Society, and has chaired the Statistics Section of the AAAS and the Board of Trustees for the National Institute of Statistical Sciences. She has been recognized with the American Statistical Association's  F.N. David Award, given every other year to a women who serves as a role mode for women in statistics; the ASA Founder's Award, for her initiative in establishing awards for outstanding use of statistics at the International Science and Engineerng Fair; and the Janet Norwood award given annually to a woman for outstanding achievements in the statistical sciences. Her book on clinical trials data monitoring committees, co-authored with Drs. Thomas Fleming (University of Washington) and David DeMets (University of Wisconsin), was named WileyEurope Statistics Book of the Year for 2002; an expanded second edition was published in 2019. Dr. Ellenberg served as Interim Chair of the DBEI from October 2019 through January 2021.