July 15, 2025 | Erin Bluvas, bluvase@sc.edu
Biostatistics professor Jiajia Zhang has been selected as a Fellow by the American Statistical Association, the world’s largest community of data scientists and statisticians. Hailing from academia, government agencies, and various industries, ASA members represent 90 countries and work to advance research, science and technology as well as informing public policy and contributing to data-driven decisions.
According to the ASA bylaws, the Committee on Fellows can only elect up to one-third of one percent of the total association membership as fellows each year. The nominees must have an established reputation and have made outstanding contributions to the field. Election to Fellowship has been a highly selective and specialized honor for nearly a century.
Zhang’s been steadily building international renown for the past two decades – ever since she graduated with a Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Memorial University in Canada and joined the Arnold School’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in 2007. In the past five years, she’s been recognized for this work with the school’s Faculty Research Award (2021) and USC’s Breakthrough Leadership in Research Award (2022).
Zhang is most known for her methodology work in modeling complex survival data, a common data structure in medical research. She develops her own research methods and statistical software, which she is committed to making available to other researchers.
Zhang has created seven statistical packages in R, one of the most popular free software programs that is widely used in many research areas, including public health. Though her biostatistical expertise spans many areas, Zhang is most known for her investigations into the links between certain diseases (e.g., COVID-19, HIV, cancer) and their risk factors.
Her reputation in the field is evidenced by her serving as the principal investigator (PI) for three R25 training programs and one R01 grant in the infectious disease area. She also serves as chief of her department’s biostatistics division, core faculty member of the Center for Healthcare Quality, electronic health record core leader for the USC Big Data Health Science Center, and Research Design, Compliance, and Data Management Core lead for the Center for Clinical & Translational Research.
For the past eight years, Zhang has overseen the processing, management, analysis and dissemination of health-related data that are vital to the improvement of health across the state. She also supports the Rural Health Research Center, enabling them to provide guidance to groups like the National Rural Health Association and the SC Office of Rural Health.
Since her arrival at USC, Zhang has been continuously funded – leading 10 projects as principal investigator and collaborating on more than 30 others as a co-investigator. Her scholarly publications total more than 200 papers.
"We are all so proud that Jiajia's exceptional contributions to biostatistical methods development and their applications to benefit human health have been recognized with this prestigious and well-deserved honor," says department chair Athony Alberg. "She is the first departmental faculty member to receive this honor, reflecting her impactful work and giving us all reason to celebrate this achievement."
Zhang and the other 2025 Fellow Inductees will be recognized at the annual Joint Statistical Meetings, which will be held in August in Nashville, Tennessee.