Kathryn Roeder

Kathryn Roeder is the UPMC University Professor of Statistics and Life Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), affiliated with the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Departments of Statistics & Data Science and Computational Biology. Her research focuses on developing statistical methods for genetic and genomic data, particularly in identifying autism risk genes and analyzing single-cell multi-omic data. She earned her Ph.D. in Statistics from Penn State University and has been at CMU since 1994, previously serving as Vice Provost for Faculty (2015–2019).

Education:

• Ph.D. in Statistics, Penn State University (1988)
• B.S. in Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho (1982)

Research Interests:

Her work integrates modern statistical techniques (high-dimensional statistics, machine learning, networks) to study complex diseases like autism and schizophrenia. Recent efforts include tools for analyzing single-cell RNA-seq and proteomic data, such as UNICORN, DAWN, and SCEPTRE.

Key Awards:

• COPSS Distinguished Achievement Award (2020)
• National Academy of Sciences Member (2019)
• COPSS Presidents’ Award (1997)
• AAAS Fellow (2020)

Advising & Grants:

She has advised over 20 Ph.D. students, many contributing to landmark studies in autism genetics. Her grants include NIH funding for projects like the Autism Sequencing Consortium. Current research teams focus on computational biology and statistical genetics.

Labs & Collaborations:

Her lab develops software tools (e.g., TADA, MIND) and collaborates with the Autism Sequencing Consortium and iPSYCH-BROAD Consortium on large-scale genomic studies.