Research Assistant Professor
Division of Biostatistics
University of Miami
(February 2019 – now) 
Research Interests: Random Forests and Trees, Causal Inference, Variable Selection, Compartmental Models, Infectious Diseases, Statistical Genomics, Meta-Analysis
Education
PhD Biostatistics, University of Miami, USA
BSc Economics, Dalian University of Technology, China
Selected Publications
Lu M. Yin R. and Chen X.S. (2024). Ensemble Methods of Rank-Based Trees for Single Sample Classification with Gene Expression Profiles. Journal of Translational Medicine. 22:140. [url] [pdf][CRAN Package] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M. (2023). Computing Within-Study Covariances, Data Visualization and Missing Data Solutions for Multivariate Meta-Analysis with metavcov Frontiers in Psychology. 2023 Jun 20;14:1185012. [url] [pdf] [R code tutorial][CRAN Package] [Website] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M. and Liao X. (2023). Telehealth Utilization in U.S. Medicare Beneficiaries Aged 65 Years and Older During the COVID-19 Pandemic. BMC Public Health. 23:368-382. [pdf] [supplemental pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M. and Liao X. (2022). Access to Care Through Telehealth Among U.S. Medicare Beneficiaries in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Frontiers in Public Health, 10:946944. [pdf] [supplemental pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M. and Ishwaran H. (2021). Cure and death play a role in understanding dynamics for COVID-19: data-driven competing risk compartmental models, with and without vaccination. PloS one 16(7): e0254397. [pdf] [supplemental pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M., Sha Y., Silva T.C., Colaprico A., Sun X., Ban Y., Wang L., Lehmann B.D. and Chen X.S. (2021). LR Hunting: A Random Forest Based Cell–Cell Interaction Discovery Method for Single-Cell Gene Expression Data. Frontiers in Genetics. 2021 Aug 20;12:708835. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M., Sadiq S., Feaster D.J. and Ishwaran H. (2018). Estimating Individual Treatment Effect in Observational Data Using Random Forest Methods. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics, 27: 209-219. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Ishwaran H. and Lu M. (2019). Standard Errors and Confidence Intervals for Variable Importance in Random Forest Regression, Classification, and Survival. Statistics in Medicine, 38: 558-582. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M. and Ishwaran H. (2021). Discussion of nonparametric variable importance assessment. Biometrics, 77: 23-27. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M., Parel J.M., and Miller D. (2021). Interactions between staphylococcal enterotoxins A and D and superantigen-like proteins 1 and 5 for predicting methicillin and multidrug resistance profiles among Staphylococcus aureus ocular isolates. PloS one. 2021 Jul 28;16(7):e0254519. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Lu M. and Ishwaran H. (2018). A Prediction-Based Alternative to P-values in Regression Models.} The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 155: 1130-1136. [pdf] [url] [arXiv] [.bib cite /exp]
Ishwaran H. and Lu M. (2019). Random Survival Forests. Wiley StatsRef: Statistics Reference Online, 1-13. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Rice T.W., Lu M, Ishwaran H., and Blackstone, E.H. (2019). Precision Surgical Therapy for Adenocarcinoma of the Esophagus and Esophagogastric Junction: A Machine Learning Causal Analysis. Journal of Thoracic Oncology, 14(12): 2164-2175. [pdf] [url] [.bib cite /exp]
Upcoming Talks
Ishwaran H. and Lu M., Tree-Based Machine Learning Methods for Prediction, Variable Selection and Causal Inference, Professional Development Course at 2024 Joint Statistical Meetings, Portland, Oregon, 2024/08/04 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM on Sunday
Awards
Relief Funding Award, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship and the Office of Faculty Affairs, University of Miami, August 21, 2023 – July 31, 2024.
2023 Copeland Foundation Project Initiative Award, University of Miami, March 3, 2023 – May 31, 2023.
Department of Public Health Sciences 2022 Copeland Foundation Award, University of Miami, February 3, 2022 – May 31, 2022.
Relief Funding Award, the Office of the Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship and the Office of Faculty Affairs, University of Miami, December 13, 2021 – May 31, 2022.
Top Downloaded Paper, Statistics in Medicine, 2018-2019 [ctf]
Student Travel Award, Treatment Decision in Ischemic Cardiomyopathy: Causal Inference Using Random Survival Forests, the 12th International Conference on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS), American Statistical Association, October 2017
Travel Award, Biostatistics Workshop, Statistical Inference for Biomedical Big Data, University of Florida, Gainesville, April 2017 [url]
Travel Award, the 5th Workshop on Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, May 2017
Awards in the 15th Annual High School Mathematical Modeling Contest (HiMCM), USA, 2012, listed as Faculty Advisor
– National Finalist (top 2%), Jiaming Bai, Tong Zhan, Yuren Wang and Haoran Ma. Liaoning Province Shiyan High School [ctf]
– Finalist (top 10%), Yuanhao Zu, Dongyu Lang, Xinying Chen and Jiabao Li. Northeast Yucai Foreign Language School [ctf]
– Meritorious (top 21%), Yuchen Zou, Bowei Sun, Ziqi Fang and Yueming Cao. Northeast Yucai School [ctf]
– Meritorious (top 21%), Yingyue Kang, Tianru Chen, Bozhou Zheng and Guanlin Wu. Northeast Yucai Foreign Language School [ctf]
Meritorious Winner, Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling (ICM), USA, 2008 [ctf]
First Level University Scholarship, Dalian University of Technology, China, [2006-2007] and [2007-2008]
National Scholarship, Ministry of Education of China, [2006-2007] and [2007-2008]
Professional Service
Editorial Board
– Associate Editor, Journal of Translational Medicine, Medical Bioinformatics
– Review Editor, Frontiers in Genetics, Statistical Genetics and Methodology
– Guest Associate Editor, Frontiers in Education, Research Topic: Machine Learning Applications in Educational Studies
Journal Referee
– Statistics in Medicine
– Journal of Machine Learning Research
– The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
– International Journal of Data Science and Analytics
– Trials journal
– Algorithms
– The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A (Statistics in Society)
– Nature Computational Science
– PloS One
– Frontiers in Genetics
– Frontiers in Public Health
- Nature Mental Health
