2023 Ashtekar Frontiers of Science

Exploring Open Science and Big Data

Presented by Nicole Lazar

Professor of Statistics, Penn State

Image

In the past 30 years, functional neuroimaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have revolutionized the study of the human brain. At the same time, problems with reproducibility and replicability have plagued the field, owing in part to historically small sample sizes, a plethora of choices at the data preprocessing and analysis stages, and a lack of transparency in reporting. In this talk, Lazar will give a general introduction to fMRI, its strengths, and its weaknesses. She will then survey some of the issues surrounding reproducibility and replicability of neuroimaging studies. Some remedy may come in the form of open science practices, which she will also discuss.

Nicole Lazar is a professor in the Department of Statistics and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State. She earned her B.A. in statistics and psychology at Tel Aviv University, her M.S. in statistics at Stanford University, and her Ph.D. in statistics at the University of Chicago. Prior to joining Penn State in July 2020, she served on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University and, most recently, the University of Georgia. Lazar is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. Her research interests include the foundations of statistical inference, the analysis of neuroimaging data, and the modern scientific landscape—statistical reform and open science.