Interests:

Biostatistics, machine learning, and biomedical data science.

Background:

Jeff Leek is Chief Data Officer, Vice President, and J. Orin Edson Foundation Chair of Biostatistics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He leads Fred Hutch’s integrated data science enterprise, and fosters partnerships within the Seattle area’s data science and technology ecosystem. His goal is for Fred Hutch personnel to be able to access field-leading computational resources to advance their science and care for patients. He also works with faculty to create tools and services that help the Hutch better collect, manage, use and share data. As a biostatistician and researcher, Jeff develops machine learning and statistical methods, software, and data resources and analyses that help researchers make sense of massive-scale genomic and biomedical data. As an educational leader, Jeff has helped craft online open courses in data science that have enrolled millions. He has also partnered with community-based nonprofits to use data science education for economic and public health development. He has been awarded the two top prizes in the field of statistics – the Mortimer Spiegelman Award and the Committees of Presidents of Statistical Societies President’s Award. He was also named to the 2025 Time 100 Most Influential people. Jeff is also co-founder and co-CEO of Synthesize Bio. You can find out more about Jeff’s work at jtleek.com.