Tianchen Qian
Welcome! Current and prospective PhD students, if you are interested in learning more about my research, feel free to reach out — I am always happy to chat.
About me.
My name is Tianchen Qian (钱天琛). I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at University of California Irvine. I am also affiliated with UCI's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center (ADRC) and Institute for Future Health (IFH).
Research.
The theme of our research group is developing data science tools for optimizing adaptive digital interventions. We contribute new methodology and software for
causal inference — such as how to define and estimate causal effects in longitudinal settings with time-varying treatments;
experimental design — such as how to design micro-randomized trials for mHealth interventions;
policy learning — such as how to learn the optimal way of delivering interventions from offline or online data.
We collaborate with scientists on digital intervention development from a variety of domains, including physical activity, substance abuse, smoking cessation, weight management, drinking behavior, anger management, and so on.
We also have work in the following areas:
semiparametric efficiency theory;
clinical trial design and analysis;
Alzheimer's disease and related dementia.
Here are selected publications by topic, with more context on each of the directions.
Training and Education.
2017-2020: postdoc, Department of Statistics, Harvard University, mentored by Susan Murphy
2012-2017: Ph.D. in Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University, advised by Constantine Frangakis and Michael Rosenblum
2008-2012: B.S. in Mathematics, Tsinghua University