On September 17, the Vanderbilt Biostatistics 2025 student award winners were announced by director of graduate studies Andrew Spieker, who noted that these honors reflect “a years-long tradition of recognizing students who go above and beyond the call of duty in particular areas.” They are:
Joshua Slone
The Commodore Award, for enriching the department and/or graduate program through ingenuity, dedication, and altruism
Josh has made exceptional contributions across teaching, service, and research. He stepped in as co-mentor for multiple summer interns, including taking the lead in guiding an intern during a mentor’s extended absence, earning recognition for his outstanding support. As a TA, he consistently exceeds expectations, offering patient and thorough guidance. In research, Josh is a key member of his team, leading analyses for several manuscripts and contributing significantly beyond his dissertation work. Known for his positive attitude, reliability, and willingness to help, he exemplifies the collaborative and altruistic spirit of the Commodore Award.
Haoyang Yi and Alexis Fleming
The Distinguished Teaching Assistant Award, for excellence in teaching and dedication to peer education
Haoyang excels at simplifying complex concepts and explaining them in a clear, approachable way. He provides timely, helpful feedback and fosters an inclusive learning environment for all students. His dedication goes beyond standard TA duties, offering extra review sessions and creating additional resources to support student learning. He demonstrates genuine care for student success, especially during office hours, and his teaching of both homework and course content has been instrumental in helping students better understand material and terminology.
Alexis served as TA for the first-year regression course in Spring 2025, where she regularly drew a full house during office hours. She skillfully balanced the needs of students with varying levels of experience and was praised for her patience, knowledge, and dedication. Alexis went above and beyond to help debug code, clearly explain concepts from the student perspective, and guide students through problem-solving rather than providing answers outright. Her leadership extended beyond the classroom as she organized help sessions for comprehensive exam preparation. She is dependable, highly knowledgeable, and fosters a collaborative and supportive environment.
Megan Jones
The W.S. Gosset Award for Exceptional Research, for exemplary dissertation/thesis work or exceptional contributions to a research project/collaboration
Megan is an independent and technically skilled researcher who has made notable contributions to both methodological and collaborative research. During her MS, she developed and published an R package in the Journal of Statistical Software. Her dissertation involves advanced semiparametric efficient estimators, which she taught herself to derive, demonstrating initiative and determination. She has played a significant role in high-impact collaborations, including a co-first-author paper in JAMA Psychiatry. Her work consistently meets publication-quality standards, and she approaches all collaborations with humility, professionalism, and warmth.
This year’s faculty awards were announced by Biostatistics Graduate Student Association president Alexis Fleming:
Siyuan Ma
Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching
Siyuan is an outstanding and effective instructor. His lectures are consistently described as clear, concise, and well-organized, making even difficult and abstract material easy to understand. He is praised for his patience and attentiveness in answering questions, both in and out of class, and for ensuring that course content, homework, and exams align closely. Students emphasized that his thoughtful teaching style makes challenging material approachable and his courses highly structured and impactful.
Simon Vandekar
Outstanding Faculty Mentor
Simon’s nominators highlighted both his technical guidance and his efforts to build a strong, supportive research community. He is patient and thorough when reviewing code line-by-line with students, helping them identify issues and optimize algorithms. Beyond technical mentoring, Simon fosters a welcoming lab environment with group lunches, talk practice sessions, and even informal activities like climbing events. He encourages collaboration both inside and outside the department and connects students with leaders in the field while remaining approachable and responsive with feedback.
The Department of Biostatistics concurrently conducts an annual competition to recognize research and innovation excellence among its faculty and staff, and the team that won this year’s Methods Publication Award include alumni Yuqi Tian (PhD 2022), Shengxin Tu (PhD 2024), and Nathan James (PhD 2022), co-authors of “Addressing Multiple Detection Limits with Semiparametric Cumulative Probability Models” with senior faculty members Frank Harrell and Bryan Shepherd. The 2024 Journal of the American Statistical Association paper stood out for its “a novel approach of regression analysis with outcomes subject to detection limits (DL), a common issue in biomedical research. Their method handles different settings: single DL, multiple DLs, both upper and lower DLs, and enables conditional quantile estimation for better interpretation. In addition, they have implemented an R package, multipleDL, to facilitate practical application and broad usage.”
Congratulations to all the winners!