Personnel

Matthew J. Gurka

Matthew Gurka is an Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of Biostatistics. He came to WVU from the University of Virginia, where he was an Associate Professor in the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the School of Medicine. Dr. Gurka received a Ph.D. in biostatistics with an emphasis in epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has experience in a wide range of applications of biostatistics to medical research, from the design and analysis of observational studies to the coordination and analysis of multi center longitudinal studies. His research areas in statistics include longitudinal data analysis, mixed models and other multivariate modeling techniques, model selection, power analysis, and internal pilot studies. 

Dr. Gurka has published articles in renowned statistical journals regarding complexities associated with the use of linear mixed models, such as Statistics in Medicine and the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A.  He recently completed a four-year term on the Editorial Panel of the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A. He is an elected member of the Internation Statistical Institute, and has served on the Regional Advisory Board of the International Biometric Society (Eastern North American Region). 

Dr. Gurka's collaborations have spurred statistical research of his own (e.g., internal pilots for observational studies), and his statistical expertise in turn has enhanced other fields of research (e.g., development of new equations to predict body fat percentage in children with cerebral palsy).  As a collaborator, Dr. Gurka has extensive experience with research involving children and young adults, with first-author publications in journals such as the Journal of Pediatrics and the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. He is interested in the impact of chronic illness on development and behavior, recently completing an R03 from the NICHD on this topic.  Dr. Gurka also has received R21 funding from the NIDDK to study the metabolic syndrome in children, where he is currently developing a continuous metabolic syndrome "risk score" that is sex- and race/ethnic-specific.  He is currently a member of the Executive Editorial Board of Pediatrics.  

Dr. Gurka has taught introductory biostatistics for both public health students and students from other graduate programs.  He currently teaches Categorical Data Analysis (BIOS 621), the Applied Biostatistics Lab (BIOS 602), and Data Management and Reporting (BIOS 611).