Central College’s mathematics program will host 1997 Central graduate and professor in the University of Iowa biostatistics department Jake Oleson for a talk about Iowa’s cancer rates next week. 

During the 45-minute talk, Oleson will examine Iowa’s rising cancer rates, highlight the cancers driving those trends, explain statistical methods used to analyze data, and break down rates by age, sex and geography. Iowa now has the second-highest cancer incidence in the United States. The topic bridges multiple disciplines, including biostatistics, epidemiology, informatics, and geographic information systems. 

Oleson also directs the Statistics and Analytics Core of the Institute for Public Health Practice, Research and Policy, and is the director of graduate studies in the University of Iowa’s biostatistics department. Prior to joining the University of Iowa, he served as an assistant professor at Arizona State University. After graduating from Central, he earned a master’s and doctorate in statistics at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Oleson will speak at 1 pm on Friday, February 28th in room 180 in the Vermeer Science Center, and the event is free and open to the public.