The following applicants was approved for accreditation by the board of directors at its meeting on December 12, 2024.

Applicants approved for P.Stat. accreditation

COIA, Vincenzo—P.Stat. #208

Vincenzo Coia is a senior data scientist at BGC Engineering Inc. specializing in probabilistic and dependence modelling of geohazards such as flooding, both historical and adjusted for climate change using global climate models. He completed his PhD in statistics at the University of British Columbia in 2017, where he established a tail-focused approach to estimating extreme flow quantiles using vine copulas and a composite quantile evaluation metric. Computationally, Vincenzo develops software for the R language with a focus on user experience, and writes code with a focus on robustness, reproducibility, and readability. Vincenzo was previously an assistant professor of teaching at the University of British Columbia until 2022, where he trained students in data science and statistical modelling, and was recognized by both his students and the dean for his approachable and refreshing teaching style.

KEOWN-STONEMAN, Charlie—P.Stat. #209

Dr. Keown-Stoneman is the lead/senior research biostatistician at the Applied Health Research Centre, part of Unity Health Toronto, and the main biostatistician working on the TARGet Kids! registry program at St. Michael’s Hospital in collaboration with the Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Keown-Stoneman has a PhD in applied statistics from the University of Guelph (2017) and is cross-appointed as an assistant professor of biostatistics in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

SOLTANIFAR, Mohsen—P.Stat. #210 (currently A.Stat. #140)

Mohsen Soltanifar is a mathematical statistician with more than 3 years’ post-PhD level experience in CRO/Pharma; more than 5 years’ experience in healthcare and more than 4 years’ part-time teaching experience in North American academia. His main area of interest in statistics are clinical trials with focus of R software applications in their design, analysis, and result presentations. He holds a PhD in biostatistics (2020) from the University of Toronto.

SWAPAN, Das—P.Stat. #211

Das Swapan has over 25 years of experience in performance measurement and monitoring, survey research, data management, statistical analysis of data, and reporting results for programs in Canada and overseas. Swapan is currently working as statistician within the Strategic Services Bureau of York Regional Police and is responsible for management, analysis, and reporting of crime statistics data. He coordinates with the Canadian Centre for Justice and Community Safety Statistics (CCJCSS) of Statistics Canada to ensure York Region crime statistics are captured, analyzed, and reported following the CCJCSS Uniform Crime Reporting methodology. Prior to joining York Regional Police in 2016, Swapan worked for the Canadian Institute for Health Information and community sector organization named Family Service Toronto. Before moving to Canada in 2006, he worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FemConsult—a European Union Consulting Firm, Helen Keller International, and research firm Mitra and Associates in Bangladesh. He is experienced in conducting survey research studies and managed all stages from concept to completion. Swapan is a power user of SPSS and proficient in R, SAS, FORTRAN, FoxPro, and Excel. He volunteers at Bangladesh Centre for Community Services in Toronto and at Victim Services of York Region. He holds an MSc in statistics from the University of Windsor (2009).

Applicants approved for A.Stat. accreditation

BELLOWS, Brandon—A.Stat. #171

Brandon Bellows holds an MSc in statistics from the University of Saskatchewan (2024) and currently works as an assistant quantitative research manager at the Canadian Hub for Applied and Social Research (CHASR). His research background focuses on infectious disease modelling using local polynomial regression, and he has worked professionally in academia and the private sector. Brandon's current role involves methodology consultations, research administration (including proposal, grant application, and invoice writing), questionnaire design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, and reporting.

HUANG, Geng (Jimmy)—A.Stat. #172

Geng (Jimmy) Huang holds an Honours Bachelor of Science in statistics (Co-op) and minor in economics from the University of Ottawa (2024).

THIESSEN, David—A.Stat. #173

David Thiessen is an assistant professor of statistics at MacEwan University. He completed his PhD at the University of Regina in 2024 under the supervision of Yang Zhao. David's research interests include methods to adjust for missing data and nonresponse, survey sampling and design, survival analysis, and robust statistics.

Approval of university statistics programs

The board of directors approved course lists provided by Acadia University, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, and the University of Alberta, Department of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences.