Dr. Chen's thesis is entitled "Statistical Methods for Multi-State Analysis of Incomplete Longitudinal Data" and was completed at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Professors Richard Cook and Grace Yi. Longitudinal studies often feature incomplete data and irregularly spaced observation times. Dr. Chen considered a variety of problems involving the analysis of incomplete longitudinal categorical data. These include likelihood methods based on joint models for serial categorical data, augmented inverse probability weighted estimating equations for semiparametric analyses of incomplete response and covariate data, and joint models for response and observation processes for assessments of patients with progressive disease processes when informative missing data occur. Areas of research motivating these developments include smoking prevention studies, disease dynamics in cancer patients, and longitudinal studies of patients with rheumatic diseases.

Dr. Chen received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Nankai University in China in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Afterwards, he moved to the University of Waterloo where he received his Ph.D. in 2008. Presently, Dr. Chen is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biostatistics at University of Washington in Seattle.