# Professor David Harrington Receives Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science August 16, 2023 During a lunch at the University of Maryland with the biostatistician Marvin Zelen, David (“Dave”) Harrington discussed his thesis and future goals with Zelen, who quipped, “If you don’t come to Buffalo to work in my group, you won’t amount to anything!” After spending 6 years on the faculty of the University of Virginia, Harrington began his career as a biostatistician by joining Zelen’s group in 1984, which had moved to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). ![Xihong Lin Introducing David Harrington's Talk](/sites/g/files/omnuum10116/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/statistics-2/files/3rdimage_02.jpg?itok=-bp6M_AU) When receiving the Marvin Zelen Leadership Award in Statistical Science this spring, Harrington, an [Emeritus Professor of Statistics at FAS](/people/david-p-harrington), the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), and the DFCI, fondly recounted this first memory of Professor [Zelen](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/in-memoriam-prof-marvin-zelen-a-tremendous-force-in-biostatistics/) and added, “Marvin always provided helpful, but not prescriptive advice.” An inspirational leader in the field of biostatistics, Zelen chaired HSPH’s Department of Biostatistics from 1981-1990 and the DFCI Department of Data Science (formerly the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology) from 1977 – 1998. Founded by friends, family, and colleagues in Zelen’s honor (he died in 2014), the award “recognizes an individual in government, industry, or academia, who by virtue of his/her outstanding leadership, has greatly impacted the theory and practice of statistical science” (source: Department of Biostatistics [website](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/biostatistics/zelenaward/#:~:text=The%20award%20recognizes%20an%20individual,and%20practice%20of%20statistical%20science)). Harrington received this award because of his contributions to nurturing a strong statistics community through his research, teaching, and administrative roles. Previous awardees from the Department of Statistics include founding Chair of the Department Frederick Mosteller (1997), Professor Xiao-Li Meng (2014), PhD alumna Professor Nan Laird (2015), and Professor Xihong Lin (2022). In honor of this award, we would like to share with you some of the highlights from Prof. Harrington’s career, his Zelen Award talk on “The Special Relationship between Survival Analysis and Cancer Research – Successes and Persistent Problems,” and from his one-on-one conversation with us. ### **Research Career Highlights** Over a span of 45 years, Harrington has been a leader in developing and applying statistical methods to medical research (source: Department of Biostatistics [website](https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/biostatistics/zelenaward/#:~:text=The%20award%20recognizes%20an%20individual,and%20practice%20of%20statistical%20science)). Since 1984, Harrington has been a Harvard faculty member; from 1998-2009, he chaired the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology (now the Department of Data Science) at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and from 2012-2014, he chaired the Department of Statistics at FAS. Harrington also helped found the Dana Farber/Harvard Cancer Center’s (HCC) Biostatistics research program and led the [Biostatistics Core](https://www.dfhcc.harvard.edu/research/core-facilities/biostatistics/), a resource that supports biomedical research by implementing best practices for efficient data management and analysis. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and an elected fellow of the International Statistical Institute. In his research, Harrington has focused on developing statistical methods for designing and analyzing results in clinical trials for treating lymphoma, leukemia, colorectal, and lung cancer. His expertise and leadership in this area led him to be the principal investigator for the NCI (National Cancer Institute) sponsored Statistical Coordinating Center for the Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance (CanCORS) Consortium from 2001 to 2014. The CanCORS grant provided for one Statistical Coordinating Center and six Primary Data Collection and Research Sites to collect and then analyze data about the medical care and treatment outcomes of 10,000 lung and colorectal patients (source: [National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Control & Population Sciences website](https://maps.cancer.gov/overview/DCCPSGrants/abstract.jsp?applId=6413845&term=CA093344)). ### **Personal Reflections on Research Career** In a recent conversation with us, Harrington reflected on some of the people and experiences that have influenced his career. As a math major, Harrington had always gravitated towards quantitative work, but it was his time in the US Coast Guard that convinced him to pursue graduate school. Towards the end of his three-year term, Harrington worked with a group tasked with finding the optimal placement of rescue planes and ships on the East Coast. Probability theory was an important part of the solution. He realized that research in statistics would allow him to work on interesting and meaningful problems. From graduate school onwards, Harrington was increasingly interested in addressing statistical problems within the biomedical field. As a PhD student at the University of Maryland, he forged a life-long connection with fellow student [Thomas Fleming](https://www.biostat.washington.edu/people/thomas-fleming), currently a Professor of Biostatistics and Statistics at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Remaining in close touch with Fleming after graduate school, Harrington was intrigued by Fleming’s work at Mayo Clinic on analysis of clinical trials for cancer treatment. Through this partnership, Harrington was introduced to the field of survival analysis, which he considered to be an “exciting mix of mathematical theory and compelling applications.” Because of Harrington’s interest in statistics in cancer research, he jumped at the opportunity to join DFCI, the premier institution for cancer research, as a faculty member in 1984, where he was exposed to the cancer research and mentorship of senior biostatistics and clinical colleagues. ### **Teaching Career Highlights** While Harrington’s research focuses on cancer and public health, he also enjoys working with the next generation of statistical scientists. He redesigned and modernized Stat 102 Introduction to Statistics for Life Sciences, a course targeted towards undergraduates in the life sciences. A skilled teacher, Harrington was awarded the Nichols Award for Teaching Excellence (from HSPH), the Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize (Harvard College), the Hoopes Prize for Senior Thesis Mentoring, and the Herman Callaert Leadership Award (Hasselt University), among others. Channeling his experience as an educator, Harrington wrote the seminal book “Counting Processes and Survival Analysis” with Tom Fleming as well as the book “Introduction to Statistics for the Life and Biomedical Sciences” with Julie Vu. Harrington’s former students testify to his positive influence on the community. At Harvard, he mentored over 14 Biostatistics PhD students and many concentrators in his role as Co-Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Statistics from 2008-2015, a period of exciting growth from under ten to almost 200 concentrators. Statistics concentrator [Michelle Zemplenyi ](/news/profile-alumna-michele-zemplenyi-fellow-us-department-energy)(AB 2013, PhD in Biostatistics 2020) described a conversation with Harrington several years after she graduated: “a few weeks after that conversation, I started applying to PhD programs in biostatistics. Dave helped me realize that there are ways to incorporate my interests in math, biology, and science through a biostatistics degree. I’m really grateful to Dave and my professors for continuing our relationship after graduation to help guide me on my career path.” Through such thoughtful mentorship of students, Harrington encapsulates the essence of the Zelen award. ### **Personal Reflections on Teaching Career** When asked about the most rewarding moments of his career, Harrington immediately volunteered “teaching.” For Harrington, the reward of teaching does not materialize from a specific moment; rather, it comes from the whole process of working with students and developing personal connections with them – whether discussing a thesis with a graduate student or talking with an undergraduate student going through a difficult time. While no longer teaching courses, Harrington interacts with students at the John D. O’Bryant High School in Roxbury by tutoring AP statistics. He was introduced to this opportunity by [Pie R Squared](https://www.piersquared.org/founder), a non-profit organization focused on building students’ confidence and problem-solving skills through a community-oriented tutoring experience. Reflecting on what he’s learned from students over the years, Harrington said, “My students have always been smarter, more creative than I am, so I’ve learned to listen to them. They will share great ideas with you if you give them a chance.” ### **Zelen Talk Highlights** ![Zelen talk picture with Julie Vu, Kevin Rader, David Harrington](/sites/g/files/omnuum10116/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/statistics-2/files/1stimage-davejulievukevinrader_01.jpg?itok=fSPRbY4g) In her introduction to Harrington’s talk, his colleague Professor Xihong Lin described him as a “visionary, thoughtful person, and strong communicator.” Lin highlighted his community contributions through his support of students, postdocs, and junior faculty and through his efforts to increase the diversity of editors at the New England Journal of Medicine when he was the statistical editor from 2010-2021. The lecture, “The Special Relationship between Survival Analysis and Cancer Research – Successes and Persistent Problems,” presented the fruitful collaboration between statisticians and cancer research scientists, which led to an increase in the cure rate in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia from 10% to 90% between 1967 and 2010. Harrington traced the advances in the treatment of pediatric leukemia from the initial work of Sidney Farber to the current, biologically driven studies conducted by national and international consortia. Each stage of development has involved close collaboration between statisticians and clinical scientists, which led to many advances in survival analysis in statistics as well as cancer research. The Kaplan-Meier estimator, the log rank and Gehan-Wilcoxon test statistics, and the Cox proportional hazards model were all methods proposed and used during this period. Remarkably, the increase in cure rate was the result of a series of randomized trials in the sequencing and dosing of existing therapies – no new effective drugs for leukemia were discovered during the 43-year period. ![Xiao-Li Meng, Xihong Lin and David Harrington](/sites/g/files/omnuum10116/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/statistics-2/files/2ndimage-xiaolixihonglindave_01.jpg?itok=nCto3uJs) At the close of the talk, Harrington celebrated with colleagues and former students in a reception and dinner hosted by the Biostatistics Department at HSPH. Surveying the colleagues and former students around the room, we could clearly see that Harrington’s talk and his personal and professional connections to them animated their conversations. While Harrington has been recognized for his achievements in developing and analyzing statistics in the biomedical field, the Zelen Award highlights his lasting impact on the scientific community and the next generation of scientists.