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. While I do not yet know what my research at Harvard will entail, I have several diverse interests, including causal inference, combining observational studies with electronic health records (EHR) data, Bayesian statistics, 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.