Faculty members in the Department of Statistics conduct research both in statistics and in its applications in science, industry, and public affairs. Their research is supported by contracts or grants from, among others, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and Mental Health, the National Security Agency, and the Office of Naval Research.
Particular research strengths of the department's faculty include the following.
- Bayesian analysis (Zhang)
- Causal inference (Cheng)
- Computational Neuroscience (Zhang, Iyengar, Chen, Mentch)
- Functional Data Analysis (Chen)
- High Dimensional Statistical Inference (Ren, McKennan, Liu, Lou)
- Genomics and Genetics (McKennan, Liu)
- Network Data Analysis (Chen, Zhang)
- Nonparametric Estimation and Inference (Ren, Mentch, Chen, Lou)
- Optimal Treatment Strategies and Personalized Medicine (Cheng)
- Statistical & Machine Learning Methods (Mentch, Liu)
- Survival Analysis (Cheng, Chen)
- Stochastic Differential Equations (Iyengar, Zhang)
- Time Series (Lou)
Faculty members also are extensively involved in statistical consulting, through the department’s Statistical Consulting Center, and in collaborative interdisciplinary research. Statistics faculty collaborate with researchers in the Departments of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, the Department of Psychiatry in the University’s School of Medicine, Children's and VA hospitals in Pittsburgh. Other areas of interdisciplinary collaboration include the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center.