James Odei, PhD

Dr. Odei's research interests include spatial, temporal, spatio-temporal modeling using Bayesian methods, and hierarchical modeling and applications to ecology and health. He believes interdisciplinary collaboration is key to making scientific progress. Prior to joining the College of Public Health's Division of Biostatistics, he served as a visiting assistant professor at the College of Arts and Sciences in the Department of Statistics, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses.

Spatial, Temporal, and Spatio-Temporal Statistics, Environmental and Ecological Statistics, Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling, Statistical Data Visualization, Infectious Diseases (HIV/AIDS, TB, etc.), Environmental Epidemiology, Statistical methods for observational studies in population health, health outcome research and social sciences, Behavioral Medicine and Psychology, Breast Cancer Prevention

• Ph.D., Statistics, Utah State University (USU), Logan-Utah, 2014
• M.S., Statistics, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), 2007
• BSc., Mathematics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Tech., Kumasi-Ghana, 2001

• PUBHBIO 2210: Biostatistics for Public Health Research
• PUBHBIO 6270: Introduction to SAS for Public Health Students

• USU Robins Award for Graduate Teaching Assistant of the Year, 2014
• USU College of Science Graduate Student Teacher of the Year Award, 2014
• USU Dept. of Mathematics & Statistics Graduate Student Teacher of the Year Award, 2014
• Utah State Legislature Official Citation of Honor, 2012
• American Red Cross (Northern Utah Chapter) Community Good Samaritan Award, 2012
• People Magazine (November 7, 2011 Edition) Hero of the Year Award, 2012
• UNLV Best Graduate Teaching Assistant Award, 2006

Odei, J.B., J. Symanzik, and M.B. Hooten (2014). "A Bayesian hierarchical model for forecasting of intermountain snowpack dynamics," Environmetrics, 25 (5), 324–340. DOI: 10.1002/ENV.2275.

Wilson, T.L., J.B. Odei, M.B. Hooten, and T.C. Edwards (2010). "Hierarchical spatial models for predicting pygmy rabbit distribution and relative abundance," Journal of Applied Ecology. 47, 401– 409. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2664.2009.01766.x (BBC News Feature).