"Statistics is, or should be, about scientific investigation and how to do it better."
George Box
George Box
CONTACT INFORMATION
Email: hu.mingzhao@mayo.edu
Phone: (608)338-2571
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/mingzhaohu
Address: Room 6-67, Harwick Building, 205 3rd Ave SW, Rochester, MN 55905
Hi, I'm Ming, and I am an assistant professor in the Division of Clinical Trials and Biostatistics, Department of Quantitative Health Sciences at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.
My current research focuses on developing novel statistical and computational techniques for longitudinal and time-to-event data analysis, with a particular emphasis on applications in Alzheimer’s disease. Many of these methods are motivated by large clinical datasets, including electronic health records and biomarker data from populations affected by Alzheimer’s disease, liver disease, and dialysis. I am especially interested in designing statistical solutions for complex, application-oriented problems that arise in real-world biomedical research.
I have developed state space models to facilitate the online prediction of mixed-type clinical data, and have contributed new methods for trajectory estimation within the field of nonparametric statistics. My interests also extend to survival analysis, generative models, and the analysis of spatial-temporal data, with prior projects spanning environmental studies, economics, and actuarial science. My research has been recognized through grant funding, national awards, and international citations, reflecting my commitment to advancing data-driven discovery through innovative statistical methodology.
Prior to joining Mayo Clinic, I am fortunate to have received my PhD in Statistics from the Department of Statistics and Applied Probability at the University of California Santa Barbara, advised by Prof. Yuedong Wang. I'm also very fortunate to have both Prof. Sreenivasa Rao Jammalamadaka and Prof. Wendy Meiring to guide my research.
Please find my CV here.
· I am honored to be serving as a program committee member for ENAR 2026! Invited session proposal submissions are underway, due date 6/2!
· I am currently serving as a Tracks Chair for the 2026 Symposium on Data Science and Statistics! We are making reforms on the tracks and the organization of the SDSS this year!
· Our paper, Long-Term Risk of Heart Failure in Total Joint Arthroplasty: A Population-Based Cohort Study, is published in print at The Journal of Arthroplasty, contributing to the understanding of cardiovascular outcomes following orthopedic interventions.
· At the International Liver Congress 2025, our project AI-generated high-fidelity synthetic data enables privacy-preserving liver transplant research across liver disease subtypes: a study of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) will be presented.
· AI-driven synthetic data generation for accelerating hepatology research: A study of the UNOS database has been published in the Journal, Hepatology. We hope this work will be advancing the adoption of synthetic data in liver transplant research.
· Our paper, Input subsidies and the depletion of natural capital: Chinese distant water fishing, is published in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, offering new insights into the environmental impacts of global fisheries policies.
· I contributed to Use of Artificial Intelligence–Generated Synthetic Data to Augment and Enhance the Performance of Clinical Prediction Models in Patients With Alcohol-Associated Hepatitis and Acute Cholangitis, recently published in Gastro Hepatology Advances.
· I am giving an invited talk at the University of Minnesota Department of Statistics in April 2025 on Capturing Longitudinal Biomarker Trajectories for Alzheimer’s Disease Progression. In addition to previous versions focusing on nonlinear mixed effects models, this talk also shared recent work on hidden Markov models.
· I am presenting my work Capturing longitudinal biomarker trajectories in Alzheimer’s Disease Progression at Joint Statistical Meeting 2024 in Portland, Oregon.
· I am the Statistical Editor for the Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, beginning July 2024. Excited to contribute to advancing rigorous statistical review and methodology in cardiovascular imaging research.
· I am presenting two talks at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2024: “Older predicted age using AI EKG-based age prediction is associated with higher Alzheimer’s disease neuropathologic change” and “Plasma and MRI biomarkers predict post-mortem tau pathology.” I will also share related work at the Alzheimer’s Imaging Consortium.
· At the European Renal Association Congress 2024, I am presenting “In hemodialysis patients, COVID-19 vaccination mitigates the variability of clinical and laboratory variables.”
· At the American Diabetes Association Annual Meeting 2024, I am presenting “Ferritin and COVID-19 among dialysis patients with diabetes” (with Talia Quandelacy), “Joint Modeling of Longitudinal Ferritin Trajectories and COVID-19 Infections in Native American, Hispanic, and White Patients on Hemodialysis: PUB173,” and “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in COVID-19 Outcomes among Dialysis Patients with Diabetes.”
· I am presenting my work “Capturing longitudinal biomarker trajectories in Alzheimer’s Disease Progression” at ENAR 2024. Please come and find out more about my work!
· I am serving as Practice and Applications Track Chair and Session Reviewer for the 2025 Symposium on Data Science and Statistics! Looking forward to supporting the SDSS community and highlighting impactful work in data science applications.
· I am honored to serve as Vice Chair of the ASA Committee on Members Retention and Recruitment since October 2023, supporting efforts to enhance member engagement across the association.
· I am currently Program Chair for the ASA Section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences, as of November 2023, and excited to help guide educational programming for the field.
· I am invited to serve as a Student Paper Competition Reviewer and Invited Reviewer for the ASA Health Policy Statistics Section for Joint Statistical Meetings 2024.
· I am grateful to serve as a Program Committee member for the Statistical Computing in Action Symposium, Statistical Computing Section in 2023.
· I have successfully qualified for the Academic Credentialing/Certificate in College and University Teaching given by the Faculty Advisory Board at University of California Santa Barbara.
· Our paper, The effect of fuel subsidies on Chinese distant water fishing, will be presented at ASSA 2022 in New Orleans on January 8, 2023! The session starts at 1:00 PM. This is a collaborative project and sheds light on newest findings for Chinese fisheries using causal inference.
· Our paper, The effect of fuel subsidies on Chinese distant water fishing, will be presented at ASSA 2022 in New Orleans on January 8, 2023! The session starts at 1:00 PM. This is a collaborative project and sheds light on newest findings for Chinese fisheries using causal inference.
· I am presenting my research, Dynamic Models for Corporate Competitiveness of Global Healthcare Industry with Mixed Effects, at JSM 2022 in DC on August 9, 2022! The talk starts at 8:30 AM and is followed by the poster session at 10:30-11:15 AM. Looking forward to meeting everyone there!
· The session I am chairing for the Biopharmaceutical session at JSM 2022, ASA Biopharmaceutical Section Student Paper Award Competition, is scheduled for 2:00-3:50 PM on 8/9/2022. This year we have a wonderful collection of innovative contributions ranging from clustering method for longitudinal data to a novel synthetic data integration framework with external summary information. Hope everyone can come and join me in celebrating the participants on their research innovations!
· I have been very fortunate to be given the opportunity to be participating in The 5th Preparing for Careers in Teaching Statistics and Data Science Workshop in DC! I am really grateful that my application has been selected and also to be support financially for the attendance. I am excited for the event to help me prepare for a future role as faculty responsible for teaching statistics and data science to undergraduate students, and to use it to reflect and improve my instructional practice.
· I am chairing at the Royal Statistical Society Young Statisticians Meeting 2022 and giving a refereed talk remotely on August 5! This is a delightful event for graduate students and early-career statisticians to showcase their research, network, and find collaborations. Please check it out at https://sites.google.com/view/ysm-2022, registration is currently open and free for students members of the RSS.
· Heads up, everyone, the Statistics In Phaprmaceuticals 2022 (SIP2022) conference is coming 08/22-08/26 and it's hybrid! This features a rich collection of talks from top stat/biostat leaders in pharma and student opportunities from high school to grad school. I am contributing a talk motivated by my summer data science research with Dexcom. Inc as well. Please check it out at https://events.stat.uconn.edu/SIP2022/#about.
GRANTS
1. UCSB Academic Senate (July 2022). 2022-23 Doctoral Student Travel Grant.
2. UCSB Graduate Division (July 2022). 2022 ARP Doctoral Student Summer Grant.
3. UCSB Department of Statistics and Applied Probability (May 2022). Departmental Summer Conference Grant 2022.
4. ASA Student & Early Career Travel Award. Symposium on Data Science and Statistics (SDSS) Conference, Apr 2022.
5. UCSB Academic Senate (August 2021). 2021-22 Doctoral Student Travel Grant.
6. UCSB Department of Statistics and Applied Probability (June 2021). Departmental Summer Conference Grant 2022.
7. UCSB Graduate Division (June 2020 - October 2020). Graduate Student Summer Mini-grants for Multidisciplinary Research on COVID-19 and its Impacts. Selected for extra exceptional funding via the Research Accelerator Award. Research featured in departmental highlights.
8. UCSB Department of Statistics and Applied Probability (August 2020). Departmental Summer Conference Grant 2020.
9. UW Madison Letters & Science Honors Program (April 2017). Bromley Research Conference Travel Grant, 2017.
HONORS AND AWARDS
1. First Place Poster Award, Statistics in Pharmaceuticals 2022, August 2022.
2. First Place, Data Challenge Expo 2021, August 2021. Jointly sponsored by the Statistical Computing Section, Statistical Graphics Section, and Government Statistics Section of the American Statistical Association.
3. Third place, 2017 Data Challenge, August 2017. Jointly sponsored by the Government Statistics Section, the Statistical Computing Section, and the Statistical Graphics Section of the American Statistical Association.
4. Letters & Science Honors Program Summer Thesis Award, June 2016. UW Madison Letters & Science Honors Program.
5. President’s Honors Roll, June 2015, June 2014, June 2013. Hong Kong Baptist University.
6. Padma and Hari Harilela Scholarship for outstanding students 2014, December 2014. Hong Kong Baptist University.
7. Sir Tseng Chi Lu Scholarship for outstanding students 2014, December 2014. Hong Kong Baptist University.
8. Dean’s Honors Roll, December 2014. Hong Kong Baptist University.