Rate My Professor Liz Holliday

Professor Liz Holliday is a Professor of Biostatistics in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, serving as Deputy Head of School (Research) and Head of Discipline (Medical Statistics). She is the Program Convenor for the Master of Medical Statistics and a senior statistical affiliate of the Data Sciences Support Unit at the Hunter Medical Research Institute. Her academic background includes a PhD from the University of Queensland in 2008 focused on genetic statistics, a Master of Science in Statistics from the University of Queensland in 2012, and a Bachelor of Science with First Class Honours in 2003 in mathematics and molecular bioscience. Career appointments encompass NHMRC Early Career Research Fellowship from 2010 to 2014, Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellowship in 2014, Gladys M Brawn Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship from 2009 to 2010, and Research Scientist at the Queensland Government Department of Health's Centre for Mental Health from 2007 to 2009. She holds memberships in the International Stroke Genetics Consortium since 2010 and contributes to consortia including METASTROKE, CHARGE, and SiGN.

Holliday's research specializations cover biostatistics and epidemiology, including design and analysis of randomised controlled trials, causal inference for observational studies, time-to-event analyses, multilevel modelling, genetic statistics, and linked data analysis. Her work applies to areas such as genetic associations with ischaemic stroke subtypes, white matter hyperintensities, type 2 diabetes in multi-ethnic cohorts, blood pressure genetics, cognitive traits, women's health, general practice training via the ReCEnT study, pharmacogenomics, and public health interventions. Key publications include 'Genetic risk factors for ischaemic stroke and its subtypes (the METASTROKE Collaboration): a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies' in The Lancet Neurology (2012), identifying variants like HDAC9 for large vessel stroke; studies on PCSK9 in type 2 diabetes; and contributions to high-impact journals such as Nature Genetics. With over 340 peer-reviewed journal articles and six book chapters, she has earned awards including Star Graduate from the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia (2013), Peter Bladin New Investigator Award and Young Investigator Travel Award from the Stroke Society of Australasia (2011), Heart Foundation Fellowship (2013), and NHMRC Public Health Postgraduate Scholarship (2005-2007). Holliday advises research groups, academic committees, and government bodies to promote statistical excellence in medical research.