Hongmei Zhang

Dr. Hongmei Zhang is the Bruns Endowed Professor of Biostatistics and Director of the EBE Division at the University of Memphis School of Public Health. She holds a PhD in Statistics from Iowa State University and has additional advanced degrees in Mathematics and Electronic Engineering. Her research focuses on statistical methodology development for variable selection, Bayesian networks, and clustering, particularly applied to genetic, epigenetic, and phenotypic data. She leads NIH-funded studies on cancer and allergic diseases, emphasizing collaborative translational research.

Education:

• PhD, Statistics, Iowa State University
• MS, Statistics, Iowa State University
• MS, Mathematics, Truman State University
• MS, Electronic Engineering, Nanjing Research Institute of Technology

Her research interests include advanced statistical modeling techniques such as Gaussian networks, joint clustering algorithms, and sampling plan optimization. Dr. Zhang’s recent work explores DNA methylation patterns linked to asthma progression and IgE trajectories in diverse populations, as well as causal mediation analysis in environmental health studies. She has developed software tools for variable selection in semi-parametric models and cell-type heterogeneity assessment.

Active Research Funding:

• NIH/NIAID: Clusters of Epigenetic Networks at Birth and Asthma Incidence in Children (PI)
• NIH/NCI: Surface exosome integrin profiling to predict breast cancer metastasis (Co-I)
• CDC: PH-IDEAS initiative to strengthen Shelby County Health Department systems (Co-I)

Dr. Zhang advises a robust team of students/postdocs, mentoring over a dozen researchers in statistical methodology and application. Her lab’s open-source software packages for joint clustering and variable selection are widely used in biomedical research communities.