John E. Kolassa, Ph.D.

I am currently researching series approximation methods to probability distributions, and their roles in statistical inference. Of particular interest is the use of the saddlepoint approximation to the conditional distribution of a sufficient statistic, given the remaining sufficient statistics, in approximate higher--order inference in the generalized linear model family.

Applied projects include studies of immune response in the elderly, lead poisoning in children, and prediction of neurological damage following head injury.

I received my Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Chicago in 1989. Between 1989 and 1991 I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Mathematical Sciences Department at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center. During the 1991-92 academic year I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Rochester. From 1992 until 1998 I was Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Rochester, and during the 1995-96 academic year I was Visiting Assistant Professor of Statistics at Northwestern University. From 1998 until 1999 I was Associate Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Rochester. As of 1 January 2000 I am Associate Professor of Statistics at Rutgers University.

CURRICULUM VITAE FOR JOHN KOLASSA

EDUCATION

EMPLOYMENT

AWARDS

RESEARCH GRANTS

• Duration: 1994-1999
• Title: Small Sample Biostatistical Inference
• Agency: National Institutes of Health

MEMBERSHIP IN ACADEMIC PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

PUBLICATIONS

• Kolassa, J.E. (1989), Topics in Series Approximations to Distribution Functions, Unpublished dissertation, Chicago .
• Kolassa, J.E., and McCullagh, P. (1990), "Edgeworth Series for Lattice Distributions", An\-nals of Statistics , 18, 981--985.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1991),"Saddlepoint Approximations in the Case of Intractable Cumulant Generating Functions," Selected Proceedings of the Sheffield Symposium on Applied Probability, Institute of Mathematical Statistics, Hayward, CA , 236--255.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1991), "Confidence Intervals for Thermodynamic Constants", Geo\-chimica et Cosmochimica Acta , 55, 3543--3552.
• Handcock, M.S., and Kolassa, J.E. (1992), "Statistical Review of the Henhouse experiments: The Effects of a Pulsed Magnetic Field on Chick Embryos", Bioelectromagnetics , 13, 429--433.
• Kolassa, J.E., and Tanner, M.A. (1993), "Discussion on the Meeting on the Gibbs Sampler and other Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods", Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B , 55, 78.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1994), Series Approximation Methods in Statistics, Springer -- Verlag, New York .
• Tariot, P.N., Erb, R., Leibovici, A., Podgorski, C.A., Cox, C., Asnis, J., Irvine, C., and Kolassa, J.E. (1994), "Carbamazepine Treatment of Agitation in Nursing Home Patients with Dementia: A Preliminary Study", Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , 42, 1160--1166.
• Kolassa, J.E., and Tanner, M.A. (1994), "Approximate Conditional Inference in Exponential Families Via the Gibbs Sampler", Jour\-nal of the American Statistical Association , 89, 697--702.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1994),"Small Sample Conditional Inference in Biostatistics," Proceedings of the Symposium on the Interface, Interface Foundation of North America, Fairfax Station, VA , {26}, 333--339.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1995), "A Comparison of Size and Power Calculations for the Wilcoxon Statistic for Ordered Categorical Data", Stat\-istics in Medicine , 14, 1577--1581.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1995), "Edgeworth Approximations for Rank Sum Test Statistics", Statistics and Probability Letters , 24, 169--171.
• Falsey, A.R., McCann, R.M., Hall, W.J., Tanner, M.A., Criddle, M.M., Formica, M.A., Treanor, J.J., Irvine, C., and Kolassa, J.E. (1995), "Acute Respiratory Tract Infection in Daycare Centers for the Elderly", Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , 43, 30--36.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1995),"Monte Carlo Sampling in Multiway Contingency Tables," Bulletin of the International Statistical Institute: Proceedings of the Fiftieth Session, International Statistical Institute, Beijing , {II}, 471--480.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1996), "Higher-Order Approximations to Conditional Distribution Functions", An\-nals of Statistics , 24, 353--365.
• Kolassa, J.E., and Tanner, M.A. (1997),"Approximate Monte Carlo Conditional Inference in Exponential Families," Proceedings of the Symposium on the Interface, Interface Foundation of North America, Fairfax Station, VA , {28}, 325--328.
• Falsey, A.R., McCann, R.M., Hall, W.J., Criddle, M.M., Formica, M.A., Wycoff, D., and Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "The Common Cold in Frail Older Persons: Impact of Rhinovirus and Coronavirus in a Senior Daycare Center", Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , 45, 706--711.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "Infinite Parameter Estimates in Logistic Regression", Scandinavian Journal of Statistics , , 523--530.
• Katz, P.R., Karuza, J., Kolassa, J.E., and Hutson, A. (1997), "Medical Practice with Nursing Home Residents: Results from the National Physician Activities Census", Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , 45, 911--917.
• Wahlberg, K.-E., Wynne, L.C., Oja, H., Keskitalo, P., Pyk\accent 127 al\accent 127 ainen, L., Lahti, I., Moring, J., Naarala, M., Sorri, A., Markku Seitamaa, M., L\accent 127 aksy, K., Kolassa, J., and Tienari, P. (1997), "Gene--Environment Interaction in Vulnerability to Schizophrenia: Findings from the Finish Adoptive Family Study", American Journal of Psychiatry , 154, 355--62.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), Series Approximation Methods in Statistics, 2nd Edn., Springer -- Verlag, New York .
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "Convergence and Accuracy of Gibbs Sampling for Conditional Distributions in Generalized Linear Models", In Preparation
• Kolassa, J.E. (1998), "Uniformity of Double Saddlepoint Conditional Probability Approximations", Journal of Multivariate Analysis , 64, 66--85.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1998), "Confidence Intervals for Parameters Lying in a Random Polygon", Canadian Journal of Stat\-ist\-ics , , In press.
• Kolassa, J.E. and Tanner, M.A. (1998), "Approximate Monte Carlo Conditional Inference in Exponential Families", Biometrics , , In press.
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "Explicit Bounds for Geometric Convergence of Markov Chains", Submitted
• Kolassa, J.E. (1998), "Bounding Convergence Rates for Markov Chains: An Example of the Use of Computer Algebra", Conditionally Accepted
• Kolassa, J.E. (1998),"Asymptotic, Higher Order," Encyclopedia of Statistical Sciences, Updated, John Wiley and Sons, New York , {II}, 31--36.
• Lanphear, B.P., Howard, C., Eberly, S., Auinger, P., Kolassa, J.E., Weitzman, M., Schaffer, S.J., and Alexander, K. (1998), "Primary Prevention of Childhood Lead Exposure: A Randomized Trial of Dust Control", Submitted

PRESENTATIONS AT MAJOR PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS

• Kolassa, J.E. (1989), "Approximate Saddlepoint Methods", Symposium on Applied Probability, Sheffield, UK
• Kolassa, J.E. (1990), "Confidence Intervals for Extrema in Random Linear Programs", American Statistical Association Summer Meetings, Anaheim, CA
• Kolassa, J.E. (1991), "Estimating Random Effects Generalized Linear Models", Joint Statistical Meetings, Atlanta, GA
• Kolassa, J.E. (1992), "Approximate Conditional Inference in Exponential Families Via the Gibbs Sampler", Joint Statistical Meetings, Boston, MA
• Kolassa, J.E. (1993), "Approximate Conditional Inference in Exponential Families Via the Gibbs Sampler", Biometric Society (ENAR) Spring Meeting, Philadelphia, PA. Invited Paper
• Kolassa, J.E. (1994), "Higher--Order Approximations to Conditional Distribution Functions", Biometric Society (ENAR) Spring Meeting, Cleveland, OH
• Kolassa, J.E., and Tanner, M.A. (1994), "Approximate Conditional Inference in Exponential Families Via the Gibbs Sampler", AMS-ASA-SIAM Conference on Markov Chain Monte Carlo Methods
• Kolassa, J.E. (1994), "Small Sample Conditional Inference in Biostatistics", Twenty--Sixth Symposium on the Interface, Research Triangle Park, NC. Invited Paper
• Kolassa, J.E. (1995), "Uniformity of Double Saddlepoint Conditional Probability Approximations", Biometric Society (ENAR) Spring Meeting, Birmingham, AL
• Kolassa, J.E. (1995), "Uniformity of Double Saddlepoint Conditional Probability Approximations", Conference on Likelihood, Asymptotics and Neo--Fisherian Inference, Brixen, Italy. Invited paper
• Kolassa, J.E. (1995), "Monte Carlo Sampling in Multiway Contingency Tables", Fiftieth Session of the ISI, Beijing, China. Invited paper
• Kolassa, J.E. (1996), "Approximate Monte Carlo Conditional Inference in Exponential Families", Twenty--Eighth Symposium on the Interface, Sydney, NSW. Invited paper
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "Approximate Monte Carlo Conditional Inference in Exponential Families", Biometric Society (ENAR) Spring Meeting, Memphis, TN
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "Approximate Monte Carlo Conditional Inference in Exponential Families", CRM Summer School on Asymptotics, Banff, AB. Invited paper
• Kolassa, J.E. (1997), "Explicit Bounds for Geometric Convergence of Markov Chains", CRM Workshop on Symbolic Computation, Montreal, QE. Invited paper
• Yang, B., and Kolassa, J.E. (1998), "Multivariate Conditional Inference in Exponential Families", Biometric Society (ENAR) Spring Meeting, Pittsburgh, PA. Invited paper
• Yang, B., and Kolassa, J.E. (1998), "Multivariate Confidence Regions for Generalized Linear Models", Biometric Society (WNAR) Anual Meeting, San Diego, CA. Invited paper

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

• ``Statistical Inference I'', U. of Rochester, STT411 (1997)
• ``Applied Statistics for the Biological and Physical Sciences I'', U. of Rochester, STT212 (1997, 1998)
• Thesis committee chair for Shieh-Shun Fu, U. of Rochester, Department of Mathematics (1997)
• Thesis committee for Aiyi Liu, U. of Rochester, Department of Statistics (1996)
• Thesis committee for Carol Marchetti, U. of Rochester, Department of Statistics (1996)
• Thesis committee for Byeongseon Seo, U. of Rochester, Department of Economics (1996)
• ``Series Approximation Methods in Statistics'', U. of Rochester, STT511 (1991, 1994, 1996)
• ``Introduction to Statistics'', Northwestern U., STAT B--02 (1995, 1996)
• ``Probability Theory and its Social Science Applica\-tions'', Northwestern U., MATH C--92 (1995)
• ``Mathematical Statistics and its Applications'', U. of Rochester, STT203 (1992, 1995)
• Thesis committee for Lu Cui, U. of Rochester, Department of Statistics (1996)
• ``Nonparametric Inference'', U. of Rochester, STT531 (1993)
• ``Statistical Inference II'', U. of Rochester, STT412 (1993)
• ``Introduction to Statistical Methods'', U. of Chicago, Stat 220 (1988)

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Graduate Education in the Biological Sciences Organizational Committee, U. of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry (1997--Present)
• Graduate Education in the Biological Sciences Curriculum Committee, U. of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry (1997--Present)
• Director of Graduate Studies, U. of Rochester, Department of Biostatistics (1997--Present)
• Admissions Committee, U. of Rochester, Department of Statistics (1997--Present)
• Computing Needs Committee, U. of Rochester, Department of Biostatistics (1996 --Present)
• Maintainer of WWW Page, U. of Rochester, Department of Biostatistics (1995 -- Present)
• Ad--Hoc Committee on Medical Imaging, U. of Rochester, Department of Biostatistics (1996)
• Creator of WWW Page, Northwestern U., Department of Statistics (1995 -- 1996)
• Seminar Organizer, U. of Rochester, Department of Biostatistics (1994 -- 1995, 1996 -- 1997)
• IAIMS Committee, U. of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry (1994 -- 1995)
• Committee on Graduate Studies (formerly Interdepartmental Graduate Curriculum Commit\-tee), U. of Rochester, School of Medicine and Dentistry (Ongoing)