Professor, Associate Dean of Research, COPH

Department of Biostatistics
University of Nebraska Medical Center
College of Public Health

Professional Summary

• 2020-present, Associate Dean of Research, University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Public Health
• 2020-present, Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• 2018-2020, Associate Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center
• 2018, Full Member, University of Kansas Cancer Center
• 2015-2018, Research Faculty/Associate Professor, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO
• 2015-2018 Associate Professor, Department of Biomedical & Health Informatics, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Department of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City
• 2009-2015, Research Faculty/Assistant Professor, Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, MO
• 2009-2015 Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical & Health Informatics, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Department of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City
• 2006-2008, Assistant Professor, Columbus State University, GA.

Education

• 2006 PhD Statistics, University of Kentucky
• 2004 MS Statistics, University of Kentucky
• 2004 MS Mathematics, University of Kentucky
• 1997 BS Economics, University of International Business and Economics

Research Interests  

My current research focuses on developing statistical methodology and applying advanced statistical methods in public health research:

• Statistical modeling and assessment for tobacco policy research and national behavioral surveys
• Social media research using big data (Google Trends, Twitter data, disease surveillance)
• Development of novel statistical methods for big data and high dimensional data, Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS)
• Hierarchical modeling, asymptotic theory, and mixture modeling

Research Funding (Principal Investigator)

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: A Community Data-Driven Policy Analysis Framework to Promote Tobacco 21 In The United States
• NIH/FDA: Effects of the FDA Compliance Inspections of Tobacco Retailers on Youth E-cigarette and Cigar Use: A National Study
• Health Forward Foundation: Impacts of Kansas City Area Tobacco 21 Initiative
• NU Planning Grant: “NO ENDS” – Collaborative Research towards Developing a Multifaceted Program in Prevention of Youth Vaping
• COPH Innovation Fund: A Feasibility, Acceptability, and Fidelity Study of  School-Based Youth Vaping Prevention Program in Rural and Urban Nebraska

Selected Publications

• Dai H, Charnigo, R. A Sentiment Analysis of MERS-COV Outbreak through Twitter Social Media Monitoring. JP Journal of Biostatistics. 2018, 15 (2): 107-125
• Dai H, Wu G, Wu M, Zhi D. (2016). An Optimal Bahadur-efficient Method in Detection of Sparse Signals with Applications to Pathway Analysis in Sequencing Association Studies.  PLoS ONE.
• Dai H, Charnigo R. (2015) Compound Hierarchical Correlated Beta Mixture with an Application to Cluster Mouse Transcription Factor DNA Binding Data.  Biostatistics.
• Dai H, Leeder S, Cui Y. (2014) A Modified Generalized Fisher Method for Combining Probabilities from Dependent Tests.  Frontiers in Genetics. 20.
• Dai H, Charnigo R, Vyhlidal C, Jones B, Bhandary M. (2013) Mixed Modeling and Sample Size Calculations for Identifying Housekeeping Genes.  Statistics in Medicine. 32(18): 3115-25.
• Dai H, A. Leventhal. (2019) Prevalence of E-cigarette Use Among Young Adults in the United States. JAMA.
• Dai H, K Richter. A National Survey of Marijuana Use among US Adults with Medical Conditions: 2016-2017. JAMA Network Open. ( 13 news outlets reported this study,  Altmetric Attention Score: 180)
• Dai H. (2019) Trends in Single, Dual, and Poly use of Alcohol, Cigarette, and Marijuana among U.S. High School Students: 1991-2017. American Journal of Public Health.

• Dai H. Changes in Flavored Tobacco Product Use among Current Youth Tobacco Users in the United States: 2014 - 2017. JAMA Pediatrics . 2019.  
• Dai H, Clements M. (2018) Trends in Health Care Provider Advice on Youth Tobacco Use: 2011 – 2015.  American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
• Dai H, Catley D, Richter K, Goggin K, Ellerbeck. (2018) Electronic Cigarettes and Future Marijuana Use: A Longitudinal Study.  Pediatrics. 141(5), e20173787. 
• Dai H. (2017) Attitudes toward Tobacco 21 among U.S. Youth.  Pediatrics. 140(1), e20170570.
• Dai H, Hao J. (2017) Mining Social Media Data for Opinion Polarities about Electronic Cigarettes.  Tobacco Control. 26:175–180.
• Dai H, Hao J. (2016) Flavored Electronic Cigarette Use and Smoking Among Youth.  Pediatrics.

Professional Affiliations

• American Statistical Association (ASA)
• Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT)
• The International Biometric Society: The East North American Region (ENAR)