Congratulations to associate professors Simon Vandekar and Dandan Liu on their R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Vandekar is contact PI for "Enhancing clinical trial analysis leveraging baseline neuroimaging data," with funding from the National Institute on Aging, and Dr. Liu is MPI of "Implementing tight blood pressure control in pregnant women with chronic hypertension," a study being supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
In addition to excelling at research, Dr. Vandekar and Dr. Liu are renowned for exceptional mentoring and dedicated service. The student body has recognized them both with the graduate program's Outstanding Faculty Mentor award (Dr. Vandekar in 2021 and 2025, and Dr. Liu in 2022). A 2026 Chancellor Faculty Fellow, Dr. Vandekar is co-director of admissions and chair-elect of the American Statistical Association's Statistics in Imaging Section. Dr. Liu's roles include serving as executive director of the Vanderbilt Biostatistics Data Coordinating Center and president of the Association for Clinical and Translational Statisticians.