Alumna and Harvard Prof. Nancy Cook ’76 to Give Annual Mathematics Lecture at Holy Cross

Nancy Romanowicz Cook ’76, a biostatistician and professor in the department of Medicine at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will deliver the 20th annual Leonard C. Sulski Memorial Lecture in Mathematics on Thursday, April 11 at 8 p.m. in Room 519 in the Hogan Campus Center at the College of the Holy Cross.  Cook, who graduated in the first class of women at the College, will give a lecture titled “Statistics in Medicine: Risk prediction models for cardiovascular disease in women.” The event, which is free and open to the public, is a part of the College’s 40th anniversary celebration of women on campus.

Cook, who is also a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, is involved in the design, conduct, and analysis of several large randomized trials, including the Women’s Health Study, the Physicians’ Health Study, and the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL). She is also interested in modeling observational data for developing risk prediction scores, using clinical and genetic biomarkers. Throughout her career, she has assisted in the development of the Reynolds Risk Score for cardiovascular disease as well as improved methodology for comparing and evaluating risk prediction models.

The lecture series is a tribute to Professor Sulski, who taught in the mathematics and computer science department at Holy Cross from 1965 until his untimely death from leukemia in 1991.  The lecture will be preceded by a dinner co-sponsored by mathematics and computer science department at Holy Cross and the Mathematical Association of America. For more information about the dinner contact Thomas Cecil at (508) 793-2719 or tcecil@holycross.edu before April 3.