About the Candidates

Dr. Hani Samawi

Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Iowa (USA) in 1994. Full Professor of Biostatistics at Yarmouk University until 2006. Currently, I am a tenured Full Professor in Biostatistics and Interim Chair since July 1, 2019, in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Environmental Health Sciences at Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University. I served as the Karl E. Peace Center for Biostatistics Director from August 2008 to June 2016. Associate Editor of Frontiers in Child Health and Human Development. A guest editor for a special issue of the Internal Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. The issue focus is on innovative data and statistical applications in Public Health.

Dr. Bhaskar Bhattacharya

Dr. Bhaskar Bhattacharya is a professor of statistics at Southern Illinois University. He earned his PhD in statistics from the University of Iowa under Professor Richard Dykstra. He completed his BS and MS degrees at the Indian Statistical Institute. Dr. Bhattacharya has served as a research advisor for 20 MS and PhD students and has additionally been a committee member for over 70 dissertations in science and engineering. His primary research focuses on methodological statistical inference, incorporating prior information and information theory, as well as the application of statistics. The National Science Foundation has supported his research efforts.

Dr. Bhattacharya became the Chair of the Department of Mathematics in the College of Science at Southern Illinois University in August 2015. Following a university-wide restructuring, the department became the 'School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences' in 2020. Dr. Bhattacharya was reelected as the Director of the newly established school and served in that role for about two years. During a period of critical budgetary conditions, he successfully led the department through numerous teaching, research, and faculty-staff professional development initiatives.