Jonas Harold Ellenberg

Jonas Harold Ellenberg is emeritus professor of biostatistics and epidemiology in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology & Informatics of the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Society for Clinical Trials and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

Education Ellenberg earned his BSc from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963 and his AM and PhD (both in mathematical statistics) from Harvard University in 1964 and 1970, respectively. His PhD thesis, Detection of Outliers in Multivariate Linear Regression, was written under the tutelage of W. G. Cochran.

Career After completion of his PhD, Ellenberg joined the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness (now known as the National Institute for Neurological Diseases and Stroke [NINDS]) at the National Institutes of Health, where he studied the causes of neurologic disorders in children, including cerebral palsy (CP) and febrile seizure from the Collaborative Perinatal Project. Results from this large longitudinal study showed for the first time that CP was partially caused by factors occurring before labor and delivery. Ellenberg's collaboration with medical researchers also demonstrated that use of phenobarbital did not prevent repeat febrile seizures in infants. Ellenberg stayed at NINDS for 26 years, including 11 years as head of the biometrics department.

After leaving NIH, Ellenberg joined Westat as vice president and head of biostatistics, where he remained for 10 years.

In 2004, Ellenberg became professor of biostatistics and associate dean of the school of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Recognition Ellenberg was elected as a fellow of the ASA in 1982, the Society for Clinical Trials in 2014, and the AAAS in 1994. He was an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. In 1988, he served as president of the International Biometric Society, and in 1999 became the president of the ASA.

Personal life Ellenberg is the husband of statistician Susan S. Ellenberg and father of mathematician Jordan Ellenberg

Selected publications

Statistical ethics

Clinical study design and analysis

Neonatal health