August 29, 2008

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Tamekia L. Jones, Ph.D., a biostatistician and childhood cancer researcher, is the 2008 winner of the Charles R. Katholi Endowed Distinguished Dissertation Award from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Jones earned her doctorate from the Department of Biostatistics at UAB's School of Public Health. The department established the Katholi dissertation award to encourage continued excellence in research and scholarly activities.

Jones is a former pre-doctoral trainee for the National Institutes of Health Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program who served on the UAB Graduate Student Association as a senator and secretary. She is a noted presenter on biostatistical methods at professional conferences, and is now a research assistant professor in the Children's Oncology Group Statistics and Data Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

In her UAB doctoral work, Jones showed both critical thinking skills and a creative approach to identifying unusual observations that effect data gathering and results in monitoring, said UAB's David Redden, Ph.D., Jones' graduate faculty advisor.

"She went after the field of influential observations in linear regression with an honesty and perseverance that is prized in biostatistics, epidemiology and all health policy," Redden said.

The dissertation award honors Katholi, who made substantial disease-monitoring contributions by developing methods and software for tracking and fighting Onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Africa and Central and South America.

Katholi began his career at UAB in 1970 as an assistant professor of biomathematics, and was later appointed professor and professor emeritus of biostatistics. He serves as a statistical consultant and reviewer for numerous public health associations, nonprofits and other organizations.