Harvard School of Public Health - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Dr. Robert B. Reed Professor of Biostatistics and Head of the Department BIOSTATISTICS 9

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ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS T HE academic departs of the School play a key role in each student’s education. During the first part of the year, he receives instruction from nearly all of the departments to acquaint him with the many aspects of public health activity. Later in the year, as his work becomes more specialized, he begins to concentrate his studies in the department in whose specialty he is most interested. Frequently he plays a part in the research program of the department, and by his participation in the seminars and other programs of the department, he is able to contribute to, as well as learn from, its activities. In view of the importance of the departments, each department head was asked to prepare a commentary on his department, its personnel and its programs. It was requested that special mention be made of the depart¬ ment’s research studies and international activities. The resulting essays are give in the section that follows. Their varying content and choice of emphases illustrate quite well the diversity of interests and approaches that is typical of the School of Public Health. 8

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Left to right —Dr. Glasser, Mrs. Menken, Dr. Reed, Miss Bishop, Dr. Worcester, Miss Wasserboehr. DEPARTMENT OF BIOSTATISTICS Robert B. Reed, Ph.D., A.M. (hon.), Professor of Biostatistics and Head of the Department Jane Worcester, A.B., Dr.P.H., Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology Margaret E. Drolette, A.B., M.P.H., Associate in Biostatistics (Absent 1962-63) Marvin N. Glasser, B.B.A., M.P.H., S.D. in Hyg., Associate in Biostatistics and Epidemiology Paul M. Densen, A.B., S.D., Visiting Lecturer on Biostatistics Yvonne M. M. Bishop, B.A., S.M. in Hyg., Instructor in B ostat sties Jane A. Menken, A.B., S.M. in Hyg., Assistant in Biostatistics T HE Department of Biostatistics goes about its work with a well-recognized bias— a bias in favor of explicit and quantitative formulation of all statements about public health. As Moroney puts it in one of the chapter titles in his Facts from Figures, statistics is the art of learning how to be precise though vague. All students at the School are exposed to this art through the Department’s teaching and this teaching constitutes the major focus of interest a nd the largest expenditure of energy of the Department members. 10