At Penn, the Happy Marriage of Science and Statistics

Why is a Wharton School professor publishing in neuroscience journals? The University of Pennsylvania business school is renowned for its many strengths, but one might assume a forte in brain science is not one of them. That assumption would be incorrect. Abraham Wyner , associate professor of statistics and chair of the undergraduate program in statistics, is one of several Wharton faculty members to have contributed expertise to studies in life sciences. His analyses have enabled him and other researchers to find meaning in vast quantities of data, drawing conclusions that move science forward. Wyner, a sports fan, has long generated and applied new statistical models to answer questions such as, what makes a baseball pitcher successful? Or, can a general manager of a soccer team "buy" a great squad? He has also applied his research to the areas of finance and computer science. But several years ago, he delved into a collaboration with neuroscientists at Penn Medicine , beginning a fruitful partnership. Those researchers, led by Allan Pack , the John Miclot Professor in the Department of Medicine , investigate how genetics plays a role in sleep behavior using mice.