Harvard Catalyst Profiles

Dr. Francesca Dominici is the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative at Harvard University. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and of the International Society of Mathematical Statistics. In 2024, she was named by TIME100 Health as one of the most influential scientists in global health in the world. Before being appointed founding Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, she was Senior Associate Dean for Research at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Dominici's research has focused on machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, causal inference, and data science to impact climate and environmental policy. Her air pollution studies have directly and routinely impacted air quality policy, leading to more stringent ambient air quality standards in the U.S. Her work has been covered by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the BBC, the Guardian, CNN, and NPR.

Among her most recent awards, she was recognized as the Mosteller Statistician of the Year by the Boston Chapter of the American Statistical Association in 2022. The award is given to a distinguished statistician who has made exceptional contributions to the field of statistics and outstanding service to the statistical community.

Dr. Dominici is an advocate for the career advancement of women faculty. Her work on the Johns Hopkins University Committee on the Status of Women earned her the campus Diversity Recognition Award in 2009. At the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, she has led the Committee for the Advancement of Women Faculty.

As Director of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, Dr. Dominici is building a cohesive data science community, bringing together scholars from across disciplines and schools. In addition to carrying out the academic plan of the initiative, she oversees the operations and distribution of seed funding. She helps raise funds to support its vital programmatic activities: an annual conference on data science, a postdoctoral fellows program, three internal grant funding mechanisms, and the publication of a journal, the Harvard Data Science Review.

Dr. Dominici is the founder and lead Principal Investigator (PI) for the National Studies on Air Pollution and Health Group, which is a group of faculty, research scientists, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and college students studying data science methodologies in the context of climate change, environmental impacts on health outcomes, and regulatory policy. The group has over 100 members, including 25 PIs and faculty from over 12 institutions.

Dr. Dominici is also one of the lead PIs for the BUSPH-HSPH Climate Change and Health Research Coordinating Center (CAFE). Cafe is a three-year cooperative agreement with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and a critical component of the NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative to manage and support ongoing climate change and health research and capacity-building efforts.