New Horizons in Data Science: Welcoming Genevera Allen to IICD
The Irving Institute for Cancer Dynamics (IICD) is thrilled to welcome Dr. Genevera Allen as a new core faculty member. Dr. Allen recently joined Columbia University as a Professor of Statistics and an investigator at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute.
In her current role, Dr. Allen is dedicated to advancing her research in developing statistical machine learning tools aimed at helping scientists make reliable and reproducible discoveries from large and complex data sets, for instance, in the area of single-cell RNA sequencing. Dr. Allen is particularly excited to work with IICD because of its alignment with her interests in multi-modal genomics, spatial genomics, and single-cell genomics. “My research focuses on making reliable and reproducible discoveries. It’s very exploratory, and we want to discover which hypotheses scientists should be investigating. A significant part of my work is understanding if the discovery is an actual scientific finding or just an artifact of noise in the data,” she explains.
Dr. Allen’s path to becoming a leading figure in statistical machine learning and data science is as unique as it is inspiring. Reflecting on her early career, she shares, "I initially planned to major in music as a violist, but a shoulder surgery during my freshman year changed everything. My parents insisted I switch to a STEM field, so I chose statistics, thinking it would be the easiest path. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it and decided to explore it further."
After completing her bachelor's in statistics at Rice University, Dr. Allen pursued her PhD at Stanford University under the mentorship of Prof. Robert Tibshirani, a renowned figure in statistics. “Rob Tibshirani taught me the value of making sure everything I do works well on real data, which is essential for developing tools that actually get used to advance science,” she notes.
Dr. Allen spent fourteen years at Rice University in the Departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Statistics, and Computer Science. In 2018, she founded and directed Rice University’s data science education center. “I founded the Center for Transforming Data to Knowledge, informally known as the Rice D2K Lab. This center focused on data science education, outreach, and programming for students and faculty,” she explains.
Her innovative efforts at Rice also led to the establishment of a minor in Data Science and a Master of Data Science program, with the minor in Data Science quickly becoming the largest undergraduate degree program at the university. One notable initiative was the data science capstone, where students collaborated with external clients to solve real-world data science challenges. “Our philosophy was that data science should be accessible to all students, not just those majoring in math, statistics, or computer science. We wanted to create a curriculum and capstone program that worked for the entire university,” she says.
The institution's robust academic environment and supportive culture influenced Dr. Allen’s decision to join Columbia University. “The statistics department at Columbia is fantastic. Furthermore, the IICD and the Zuckerman Institute offer incredible research and collaboration opportunities. The supportive and collegial culture stood out to me. Columbia is a place where I could see myself thriving for years to come,” she shares.
"We are thrilled to welcome Genevera Allen to our team at IICD. Her innovative approach to developing statistical machine learning tools perfectly aligns with our mission to push the boundaries of cancer research. We are excited about the collaborative opportunities her presence will bring and look forward to the advancements her research will contribute to our institute," said Simon Tavaré, IICD director.
Dr. Allen's professional journey has also been marked by significant contributions to the field of data science. She is known for her work in the areas of unsupervised learning, interpretable machine learning, data integration, graphical models, and high-dimensional statistics. Her research is driven by the goal of solving real scientific problems, particularly in neuroscience and computational biology.
Her contributions to the field have earned her numerous accolades, including a National Science Foundation Career Award, Rice University’s Duncan Achievement Award for Outstanding Faculty, and a spot on Forbes' “30 under 30” list in Science and Healthcare. She is also an elected fellow of the American Statistical Association, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and International Statistics Institute.
As she embarks on this new chapter at Columbia, Dr. Allen expresses her excitement about the opportunities ahead. “I’m honored to join the Institute. I'm particularly excited about the opportunity to understand the current computational toolset and let that inspire new methods and solutions for my team,” she says.