Robert Walter Makuch PhD

Professor of Public Health (Biostatistics) and in the Child Study Center

Biographical Info

Robert Makuch is a professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Yale School of Public Health and director of the Regulatory Affairs Track. A graduate of the University of Connecticut (BA), University of Washington (MA – mathematics), and Yale University (MPhil, PhD) he worked at the National Cancer Institute and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer early in his career. He returned to Yale in 1986 and has worked extensively on methodologic issues in clinical trials and large population-based studies since. Another area of interest involves adverse drug event reporting especially in the post-marketing environment. His areas of medical application include cancer, HIV, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease.

In 2003, Makuch received the American Statistical Association Fellow Award for his numerous contributions to the field. In 2008, Makuch was received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Connecticut. He also developed a 5-year biostatistics training program in Japan, in collaboration with the Japanese government. From 2007 to the current time, Makuch leads a senior leadership training program with the China State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA). His primary research interests continue to be methodologic issues in the design, conduct, and analysis of clinical and large-population/epidemiologic studies. Design and sample size considerations for Phase IV studies is another active research area, in which a new class of hybrid designs has been proposed for scientific and regulatory purposes to detect rare adverse events.

Education & Training

Ph.D.

Yale University (1977)

Honors & Recognition

• Fellow, American Statistical Association
  
• Member, Phi Beta Kappa