Center for Statistics in Big Data (CSBD)

Advancing statistical and computational methods to transform high-dimensional multi-modal biomedical data into actionable insights for precision health.

About the Director

Hongzhe Li is the Perelman Professor of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania, with secondary appointments in Statistics and Data Science, Applied Mathematics and Computational Science, and Genomics and Computational Biology. He serves as Vice Chair for Research Integration in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics and directs the Center for Statistics in Biomedical Big Data.

Dr. Li’s research lies at the intersection of statistics, artificial intelligence, and biomedicine. His group develops statistical and machine learning methods for multimodal and population-scale biomedical data, including genomics, single-cell and spatial omics, microbiome and virome studies, electronic health records, and precision health applications.

He is an elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Li has published more than 290 peer-reviewed articles and has led numerous NIH-funded research programs spanning statistical methodology, biomedical AI, and translational data science.

Core CSBBD Faculty

The Center fosters interdisciplinary collaborations across the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Medicine, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and external institutions. Our faculty lead and participate in major research initiatives spanning biomedical AI, genomics, microbiome and virome science, precision health, and population biology. Together, these collaborations create a vibrant ecosystem of methodological innovation and translational research, advancing the development of statistical and AI methods for biomedicine.