PROFESSOR JENNIFER VISSER-ROGERS
STATISTICIAN
Prof. Jennifer Visser-Rogers is Vice President for Statistical Research and Consultancy at PHASTAR, moving there in August 2019 from the University of Oxford where she was Director of Statistical Consultancy Services and an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics. She had previously worked as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Statistics funded by the National Institute of Health Research. She has a special interest in the development and application of novel statistical methodologies, particularly in medicine. Her main area of expertise is the analysis of recurrent events and much of her research has focussed on developing and implementing appropriate methodology for the analysis
of repeat hospitalisations in patients with heart failure but her research has many other applications in medicine such as epilepsy and cancer, but also in retail and engineering. She works alongside other statisticians, clinicians, computer scientists, industry experts and regulators.
In her role at PHASTAR, Jennifer directs the statistical research strategy, helping the company stay at the cutting edge of new methodological advances. She is also the technical lead for the company's statistical consultancy offerings, providing guidance and direction to the group. PHASTAR work with small and large pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies to provide statistical consulting, analysis and reporting, data management and data science services.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennifer has carried out numerous interviews and is currently ITV's resident COVID-19 statistician. She is also a member of the Royal Statistical Society COVID-19 Task Force. A full list of Jennifer's media interactions can be found here.
Jennifer was the 2020 winner of the annual HealthWatch Award for her work in improving the understanding of statistics through the media. You can watch her acceptance speech and lecture, titled "Can’t see the wood for the trees? Making sense of data during a global pandemic", here.
Jennifer is a highly active member of the Royal Statistical Society. She was the Society's Vice President for External Affairs (2017-2020) and sat on RSS Council (2015-2020). She was also previously appointed as the RSS Guy Lecturer for 2014 and was Honorary Officer for Meetings and Conferences, organising the 2015 and 2016 RSS International Conferences. In addition to her involvement with the Royal Statistical Society, Jennifer was the President of the British Science Association Mathematical Sciences Section for 2018.
Jennifer can also regularly be found giving conference presentations and talking all things statistics in schools, theatres and pubs. She is a popular statistics presenter and can often be heard on the Radio or seen on TV screens. She has made a number of appearances on BBC Radio 4's More or Less and appeared on series 42 of BBC Watchdog where she presented their "Best or Worst" segment.