The Statistical Society of Canada (SSC) Community Connections initiative aims to foster connections across the SSC by highlighting individual members of our community. This initiative aligns with one of the SSC’s strategic priorities: promoting a sense of community in the statistical sciences and related fields. Selected individuals will be featured in articles published in SSC Liaison.
We are pleased to spotlight Dr. Catherine Njue, manager of the office of biostatistics in the Biologic and Radiopharmaceutical Drugs Directorate at Health Canada. Prior to joining Health Canada, she earned a PhD in statistics from the University of Manitoba and worked as a biostatistician at CancerCare Manitoba. At Health Canada, Dr. Njue leads a team of biostatisticians who primarily evaluate the statistical methodology of clinical trials and other sources of evidence for biologics and radiopharmaceutical drugs.
Dr. Njue’s first involvement with the SSC was attending an annual meeting as a PhD student. Her favourite memories from SSC annual meetings are rooted in networking and connecting with other statisticians. In fact, she credits attending an SSC annual meeting with leading her to a career in regulatory statistics. Throughout her time within the SSC community, Dr. Njue has taken on various roles in the SSC and currently serves on the board of directors as an elected representative from Ontario.
According to Dr. Njue, the highlights of her job include seeing the important applications of biostatistics in different therapeutic areas, understanding the important role statistics plays in regulatory decision-making, and her “amazing team of biostatisticians.” She believes regulatory statistics is a very interesting field of statistics and encourages SSC members to learn more about it.
Dr. Njue’s most important career milestones involve being recognized as a leader. Her dedication to leadership extends to the SSC community. For instance, she served as a career panelist at the 2021 Canadian Statistics Student Conference, sharing her expertise with junior members of our community. She encourages early-career researchers in the field to think outside the box. Outside of work, she enjoys music.
We sincerely thank Dr. Njue for sharing her insights and for participating in our SSC Community Connections initiative.
Would you like to be featured in a future SSC Liaison article, or do you know an SSC member we should spotlight? If so, please submit a nomination via our Google form. You must log in to mySSC to submit a nomination.
Written by Luke Hagar Félix and Camirand Lemyre