Epidemiological Applications
The interests of Lecturer Koko Gulesserian lie at the intersection of statistical analysis and epidemiological applications. “As populations grow, the need to understand the effects of pollution from human-made sources becomes more important,” he says. “My main areas of concentration are survival analysis, methods for longitudinal data, and matched case-control studies.”

Effects of Human-Made Pollution
Gulesserian is currently working on a study to assess the effects of human-made pollution via motor vehicles on the respiratory health of children. “The goal is to see how motor vehicle pollution is exacerbating asthma episode rates among children under the age of 12,” he says. “The challenges posed in these types of study is the absence of a randomized experiment setting.”

Policy Impact
Given that nearly all pollution studies are observational, Gulesserian says that the goal is to get the most amount of inference out of such types of data where experiments are nonethical or nonfeasible. “As the world becomes more automated and motorized, we need to know at what cost — how is this affecting our personal health and well-being?” he asks. “The hope is that what is learned from these studies will help put policies in place that will create an environment in which health and sustainability are prioritized.”