About

My name is Luke Benz and I am a second year Biostatistics PhD Student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. I graduated from Yale University in 2019 with a BS in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Statistics and Data Science. I am advised by Sebastien Haneuse, and my research interests include analyzing data from observational studies, causal inference and target trial emulation, electronic health records (EHR) data, missing data, and statistical computing.

Before coming to Harvard, I was a senior data scientist at Medidata Solutions, Inc., where I most recently worked on models to select sites to use in clinical trials, and to forecast enrollment patterns and key milestones in those trials.

In my free time, I enjoy working on projects at the intersection of statistics and sports, and was president of the Yale Undergraduate Sports Analytics Group between 2017-2019. Many of my past projects have involved college basketball, and my R package ncaahoopR is designed to facilitate easy access and analysis of college basketball play-by-play data. My most recent publication related to sports examines the change in home advantage in European soccer during the COVID-19 pandemic, when games were played without fans.