The Florida State University Department of Statistics is pleased to present Susan Murphy, professor of Statistics at Harvard University, as its 2021 Myles Hollander Distinguished Lecturer.  

Murphy, the Mallinckrodt Professor of Statistics and of Computer Science, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, and professor of Computer Science at Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, will present “We used a Bandit Algorithm to Personalize But Did It Work?” at 10 a.m., Friday, Sept. 24, via Zoom.

Murphy's lab works on clinical trial designs and online learning algorithms in sequential decision-making, in particular in the area of digital health. She developed the micro-randomized trial for use in constructing mobile health interventions, which is presently in use across a broad range of health related areas. Murphy is a 2013 MacArthur Fellow and a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine.

Lecture Abstract
Reinforcement Learning Algorithms provide an attractive suite of online learning methods for personalizing interventions in digital health. However after an reinforcement learning algorithm has been run in a clinical study, how do we assess whether personalization occurred? We might find users for whom it appears that the algorithm has indeed learned in which contexts the user is more responsive to a particular intervention. But, could this have happened completely by chance? We discuss some first approaches to addressing these questions.

About the Lectureship
The annual Myles Hollander Distinguished Lectureship recognizes an internationally renowned leader and pioneering researcher in statistics who has made a sustained impact on the field, and the lectures feature topics spanning the breadth of statistics.

About Myles Hollander
Professor Emeritus Myles Hollander joined the FSU Department of Statistics in 1965 upon completion of his M.S. and Ph.D. in Statistics at Stanford University after earning his B.S. in Mathematics from Carnegie Institute of Technology. He made substantial and enduring research contributions to nonparametric statistics, reliability theory, survival analysis, biostatistics and probability theory, among other areas. Hollander co-authored textbooks on nonparametric statistics, biostatistics, and introductory statistics.

Hollander is Fellow of the American Statistical Association, Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. He served as editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Theory and Methods (1994-1996) after being editor-elect (1993-1994). In 2003, the American Statistical Association recognized him with the Gottfried E. Noether Senior Scholar Award for his excellence in theory, methodology, and applications in nonparametric statistics.

At FSU, Hollander served as statistics chair for nine years (1978-1981, 1999-2005). He received the Professorial Excellence Award in 1977, was named Distinguished Research Professor in 1996, and in 1998 was named Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor, the highest honor Florida State faculty bestow upon one of their own. He retired in 2007 after 42 years of service.