Ben Ouyang VMD, MSE, MS, BS
Biomedical and epidemiological data scientist and visualization specialist
What I do
I generate salient statistical insights to empower health and medical experts by orienting intuition, resolving cognitive dissonance, and aligning findings with scientific knowledge. By synergizing epidemiologic and statistical methodology with subject-matter expertise, I refine intent and motivation into well-defined research objectives that efficiently drive study design and analysis.
Education
- PhD, Epidemiology — Study design, statistical inference, population health
- MSE, Applied Mathematics & Statistics — Probability, statistics, modeling, computation, AI/ML
- VMD, Veterinary Medicine — Clinical reasoning, comparative medicine, outbreak management
My Background
I have always wanted to contribute to the health of the environment and its denizens. My first experience came as an applied mathematician when I modeled wildfires and the transmission of disease between national parks and adjacent cattle ranches. Wanting to get more direct experience and a broad biomedical and clinical background, I became a veterinarian. Because it’s possible to encounter an unfamiliar species at any moment, I became very comfortable with recognizing the limits of my knowledge (saying “I don’t know” is very okay) and asking the right questions to learn more. My specialty training was in infection control and biosecurity where I got to use epidemiological tools to manage hospital-associated infections and several outbreaks. Becoming an epidemiologist became the next logical step. Shortly after, I worked in an innovative biotechnology company as a senior biostatistician supporting the development of diagnostic instruments. I found that my blend of epidemiology, statistics, engineering mathematics and veterinary medicine allowed me to collaborate very effectively with a breadth of non-statistical experts, including clinicians, laboratory scientists, engineers and business partners. This is where I learned the value of statistics in empowering and unlocking people’s expertise.
My Lab
This is my online data science laboratory. Please use the links below or at the top of the page to look around.
Portfolio
Snapshots of finished projects.
Bench
In-progress projects.
Learning Blog
A record of things I’ve learned.
Email me at zbolabs@gmail.com if you’d like to collaborate, chat about a project, or ask a question.