October 12, 2006
Talking with Professor Betz Halloran
Dr. Elizabeth Halloran, the Ross Prentice Professor of Biostatistics in the UW School of Public Health and Community Medicine and member at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is internationally recognized as a pre-eminent researcher in the study of infectious disease. She is at the forefront of efforts to thwart a flu pandemic and serves as an advisor to federal public health and security agencies.
After a long tenure at Emory University in Atlanta, Halloran and her longtime research collaborator Ira Longini joined the UW community earlier this year.
Q: Why did you come to the UW? Why now?
A: The University of Washington’s global health initiative and its plans, together with the Hutch, to build a vaccine center presented a great opportunity for us. We were recruited to help build those initiatives and to build a center for computational epidemiology as part of those initiatives.
Q: You use stochastic models to study infectious disease interventions. Can you explain this model?
A: The stochastic model mirrors the uncertainty of how infectious diseases are spread. Our computer, Psyche, randomly assigns outcomes in much the way nature does. A disease carrier might infect many people, or have symptoms of the disease, limited contact with others, and infect nobody. The model uses census demographics to calculate how a pandemic would spread in the United States.
Q: You focus on infectious diseases in your research, specifically interventions for infectious diseases. What are your research priorities?
A: At the moment, I am working on how to evaluate interventions such as vaccines for infectious diseases, such as influenza. I am also interested in novel study designs and statistical methods of analysis of such studies.We do mathematical modeling of infectious diseases such as a pandemic influenza. I am also working on methods to analyze gene expression experiments in the development of immune memory and how vaccines work.
Q: You recently proposed in the journal Science that giving influenza vaccines to school-age children might reduce overall transmission of flu in the community. Why?
A: We want to look at the possibility of a nationwide study of vaccinating school-age children against the flu to reduce overall transmission. School-age children may be one of the best transmitters of the flu virus, simply because they easily spread viruses to their families and classmates.
Q: How did you become interested in science?
A: When I was young, my grandfather gave me little mathematical puzzles to solve and we played Scrabble. In college, I found myself drawn to mathematics and physics. Back then, I was usually with only one other girl in the math and physics classes.
Q: When did you become interested in statistical modeling?
A: After getting my medical degree in Berlin, I got a master’s degree in public health, with a focus on tropical health, from the Harvard School of Public Health. It was there that I rediscovered the quantitative methods, including modeling, biostatistics, and study design methodology, and went on to get my doctoral degree.
Q: You were featured in the March issue of Vogue magazine as a trailblazer and power player. In addition to all of your scientific accolades, the author also noted that you were “for academia, well turned out, with a closet full of Armani, Dolce, Manolo, and Pucci.” How did you get featured in Vogue?
A: We had published a paper in the journal Science on models of intervention in a flu pandemic. The research, supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), received a lot of press coverage. Vogue was looking for a scientist to feature and contacted the press officer of the NIGMS. She suggested me. She recalled that I wore Manolo Blahnik shoes. I was wearing Manolo Blahnik’s way before Sex and the City made them popular. I like good clothes and try to dress nicely.
Q: It goes without saying that you are a high achiever. What do you do for fun?
A: I take piano lessons. My last piano recital, I played the Last Beethoven Sonata. I have just begun private lessons with Craig Sheppard, professor in the School of Music, here at the UW. I’ve also studied ballet and love ballroom dancing. I enjoy backpacking and hiking. I have a big art collection. And I do tai chi every morning — I can do the splits on both sides.
Q: Some would call you a renaissance woman. Would you agree?
A: I enjoy a number of things. I’m not afraid to take risks. It’s important to try to have a sense of humor and to be generous and kind.
