Ashraf Yaseen, PhD.

Hey there! I'm Ashraf Yaseen, a data scientist, educator, and researcher based in Houston, Texas. I’m currently a tenured Associate Professor of Data Science at the School of Public Health, Center for Big Data in Health Sciences, at the University of Texas - Health Science Center, where I get to do what I love: explore big questions through data, build smart tools, and help train the next generation of data scientists.

My work focuses on using machine learning and big data to improve public health—developing machine learning models for predictive public health analytics, integrating and curating multi-modal datasets, building scalable data pipelines and data systems for large cohort studies, and advancing computational methods in biomedical informatics.

I get to be part of some really exciting research projects - many of them funded by federal and state agencies. I’ve helped lead efforts to build the data infrastructure behind large public health collaborations, and I work closely with awesome teams of programmers, analysts, and students to bring these projects to life. It’s incredibly rewarding to see our work make a real impact, and I love being in the middle of it all; solving problems, sharing ideas, and pushing the boundaries of what data can do.

Teaching is a big part of what I do. I’ve developed and taught courses in data science, machine learning, and bioinformatics, and I advise master’s and PhD students who are doing amazing work. I also co-developed and currently coordinate UTHealth’s data science certificate programs to help train future leaders in healthcare analytics.