DENNIS K. PEARL

One direction of my current research is in addressing statistical issues caused by the dependency structure of phylogenetic trees which seek to describe the evolutionary history of a group of organisms. Examples include the development of methods to explore the randomness in our knowledge of a phylogenetic tree; stochastic search methods to find good estimates of the phylogenetic tree; and new metrics in tree space to allow for a concise description of results. I am particularly interested in the applications of these techniques to the evolution of viruses and other disease causing organisms. Secondly, I have been active in many collaborative projects with biomedical scientists, including recent studies of the diagnoses and prognoses of brain tumors, and of the role of tobacco and alcohol in the development of oral cancers. A third area of research is in the development of new teaching strategies that provide an individualized match to student learning styles while reducing costs through the appropriate use of technology.