URMC / Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology / News & Events / Oakes Conference

A Conference in Honor of David Oakes

The Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at the University of Rochester will host a 1-day conference to recognize the contributions of Professor David Oakes to the field of statistics and to the department. The conference, celebrating David’s retirement, will focus on modern developments in survival analysis and related topics. It will bring together researchers making fundamental contributions to survival analysis, researchers with deep ties to biomedical research, methodology and applications. This will be a valuable opportunity for graduate students and new researchers who may not otherwise have the opportunity to see emerging survival analytic methods with applications to biomedical research.

Invited speakers include Drs. Rebecca Betensky, Richard Cook, Danyu Lin, Amita Manatunga, Ross Prentice, Doug Schaubel, and Mei-Cheng Wang.

Conference Date, Venue, and Time

Date: Friday, September 12, 2025
Time: 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
Location: Saunders Research Building, 265 Crittenden Boulevard, Rochester NY

Tentative Agenda

8:00 a.m.–9:00 a.m. - Continental breakfast
9:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m. - Introduction and Technical Sessions (3)
12:15 p.m.–1:30 p.m. - Lunch
1:30 p.m.–4:15 p.m. - Technical Sessions (3)
4:30 p.m.–6:00 p.m. - Poster Session and Social Hour

Registration

All attendees except for the featured speakers are required to register online via the link below.

Registration Deadline: August 1, 2025

Registration Fee:

University of Rochester Affiliates: Free
General Registration: $50
Student or Postdoc: $20

Late registration is not guaranteed but may be allowed on a first-come first-served basis as space and resources permit. Please contact Ms. Kristine Pittinaro.

Poster Session

The conference will feature a poster session and social hour, with priority for posters given to graduate students and postdocs. If you are interested in presenting a poster please email Dr. Wahed a tentative title and abstract by 7/18/2025 with a subject line “Oakes Conference Poster Abstract”. You will be notified as to whether your poster has been accepted for presentation by 7/25/2025.

Accommodation

Closest hotel (walking distance) is the Hilton Garden Inn University of Rochester Medical Center.

This is a 13-minute walk from the Saunders Research Building. There are other hotels located in Brighton, downtown Rochester, and Henrietta area, all of which will require transportation.

Parking

Limited parking is available onsite. Please indicate on the registration site if parking is needed.

About Dr. Oakes

David Oakes Dr. Oakes came to Rochester in 1983 and has served as chair of Statistics and of Biostatistics and interim chair of Biostatistics and Computational Biology. He has had a lasting collaboration with the Department of Neurology involving clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease. He has a longstanding interest in occupational and environmental medicine and was PI of the University of Rochester NIEHS T32 training grant for 20 years. He has also worked with investigators in cardiology, infectious diseases and pediatrics. He has authored or co-authored four books and over 200 peer-reviewed papers.

Dr. Oakes has played a major role in the analysis of survival data, including studies of frailty models and copulas for bivariate survival outcomes. Another area of contribution is the "win-ratio," a method of summarizing multiple outcome data in clinical trials which gives priority to the more important outcome. He served as an Associate Editor of Biometrika from 1979-2008 and has a long-standing relationship with the journal Lifetime Data Analysis, including as co-Editor. The following quote comes from a recent special issue of the journal honoring him:

"His seminal work spans many areas, including Stochastic Processes and Probability, Univariate and Multivariate Censored Survival Data, Frailty and Copula Models, Mean Residual Life, and Win Ratio for Semi-Competing Risks Data. His influential paper “Bivariate Survival Models Induced by Frailties” (JASA, 1989), which has been cited over 1,100 times to date, introduced a new class of bivariate survival distributions that are induced by a common dependence structure (frailty) under the proportional hazards model. The monograph “Analysis of Survival Data”, co-authored with Sir David Cox, has received over 11,000 citations."

Jeong and Manatunga

(2022, Lifetime Data Analysis, 28:543-545)