2006
Renowned Scholar and Pharmaceutical Researcher Endows Chair in Biostatistics at UC Berkeley
The School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, announced the establishment of the Jiann-Ping Hsu and Karl E. Peace Endowed Chair in Biostatistics, which was approved by University of California President Robert C. Dynes in February 2006. The chair was created by Dr. Karl E. Peace to support the teaching and research activity of a nationally recognized scholar in biostatistics. Mark van der Laan has been selected as the first recipient of the chair.
Peace is an accomplished scientist who has made it his mission to create opportunities for promising researchers. Born into an uneducated, share-cropping family in Baker County, Georgia, he was the first in his family to graduate from high school. He paid for his college education with a scholarship and $500 borrowed from a businessman, while working part-time jobs to support his siblings and his mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer.
After receiving his master's degree, Peace taught at several colleges in order to support his mother while enabling his younger brother and sister to finish school. After receiving his Ph.D. in biostatistics from the Medical College of Virginia, Peace accepted an entry-level position in the pharmaceutical industry and rose to become vice president of worldwide technical operations at an international pharmaceutical company. He left to start his own company, Biopharmaceutical Research Consultants, Inc., which provides scientific and technical services to the pharmaceutical industry. Peace has contributed to the development and approval of many important drugs, including treatments for Alzheimer's, cardiovascular, infectious and ulcer diseases, and panic disorders. Peace is the founding director of the Karl E. Peace Center for Biostatistics, Senior Research Scientist and the Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Cancer Scholar at Georgia Southern University.
Peace's late wife, Dr. Jiann-Ping Hsu was born in mainland China and received her bachelor's degree from National Taiwan University. She earned her master's degree from Columbia, and went on to receive her Ph.D. in biostatistics at UC Berkeley. Hsu worked to bring her family to the United States and supported her parents and four sisters, enabling them to receive a college education. She served with the Food and Drug Administration and on review panels for the National Institute on Drug Abuse clinical trial grant applications.
During her career, Hsu held research positions at leading pharmaceutical firms. She helped grow Biopharmaceutical Research Consultants, Inc. with her husband and became president of the company when Peace stepped down. She received many professional awards and was a nationally recognized biostatistician. Just prior to her death in 2004, Karl Peace endowed the Jiann-Ping Hsu School of Public Health at Southern Georgia University the first school of public health in the USG System, to commemorate her zeal for excellence, consideration of others, intelligence, and kindness.
The Jiann-Ping Hsu and Karl E. Peace Endowed Chair in Biostatistics was established to support the teaching and research activity of a pre-eminent and nationally recognized scholar in biostatistics. The scholar must have demonstrated commitment to teaching, research, and service in biostatistics. The first recipient of the chair is Mark van der Laan, Ph.D., whose research includes statistical methods in genomics, survival analysis, and multiple testing. Applications for his work have included using multiple testing methods to discover drug-resistant mutations in HIV and to determine which pollutants have significant effects on asthma in children. He is active in teaching masters and doctoral students in the biostatistics program.
Van der Laan has received many honors for his advances in the field of biostatistics. The National Institute of Health awarded him grants for two projects, "Statistical Analysis of Longitudinal Studies with Gene Expression Data and "Data Adaptive Estimation in Epidemiology and Genomics." Last year van der Laan was awarded the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies Award, an international prize given to the best statistician under the age of 40, and was asked to present the Lefkopoulou Distinguished Lectureship at Harvard University. He received the van Dantzig Award, which is given once in every five years by the Dutch Statistical Association to a Dutch statistician or operation researcher age 40 or younger who has made an exceptional contribution, either theoretical or practical, to the field. "Mark van der Laan's accomplishments at such a relatively young age are truly exceptional. I am, and I'm sure my wife would have been, delighted by the choice of Mark as the first holder of the Jiann-Ping Hsu/ Karl E. Peace Chair in Biostatistics at UCB," Peace said.