Daniela Witten
danielawitten.bsky.social
Daniela Witten
@danielawitten.bsky.social
dorothy gilford endowed chair and professor of statistics/biostatistics at university of washington, all views my own
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Thank you Gemini.

h/t @yonahfreemark.com
May 29, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Academia is cool because if you're doing it right, every paper you published in the last 3 years feels inadequate now that you understand the topic better, but it'll take 3 years to get out the version where you get it more right, and you get to do that until one day you die! Isn't that cool
April 19, 2025 at 7:11 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Love the sentiment

but

wtf is this data graphic
April 10, 2025 at 1:37 AM
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Final_Version_of_Tarrifs_actualFINALcopy_version7_USETHISONE.docx
April 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
okay now that you all have gotten a taste of America's rational and predictable new trade policy, everyone who wants to build your new factories here just form an orderly line
April 9, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
The problem with most machine-based random number generators is that they’re not TRULY random, so if you need genuine randomness it is sometimes necessary to link your code to an external random process like a physical noise source or the current rate of US tariffs on a given country.
April 9, 2025 at 7:15 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
I want my government to be boring and competent enough so that I don’t have to think about it every goddamn minute.
April 4, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
I wrote something... about writing. #ScientificWriting to be exact, but I think it applies to all kinds of #writing.
An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write
Nature Biotechnology - An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write
rdcu.be
March 17, 2025 at 5:52 PM
This is the best thing I have ever read in my life. I love it so much. Great advice for all of us, regardless of career stage and whether we self-identify as procrastinators!! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write - Nature Biotechnology
Nature Biotechnology - An open letter to graduate students and other procrastinators: it’s time to write
www.nature.com
March 27, 2025 at 6:39 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
It is best to get into a field that is small enough that people are incentivized to support each other's work rather than tear it down.
March 14, 2025 at 3:00 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
This year’s prize Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics honors Yoav Benjamini, Daniel Yekutieli, and Ruth Heller of Tel Aviv University for their pioneering work on the false discovery rate. magazine.amstat.org/blog/2025/03...
March 14, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Have truly lost patience with the New York Times’ editorial coverage of AI, which has basically degenerated into industry cheerleading.

They are completely misrepresenting what most academics believe about AGI.

I detail some blunders here:

open.substack.com/pub/garymarc...
Hype, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, the podcasters who love him — and how the New York Times’ commentary on AI has degenerated into industry cheerleading
Real journalists do due diligence
open.substack.com
March 14, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
A dear friend of mine just had all her funding pulled. All she has ever done is work exceptionally hard to do excellent science and help others do great science. This is heartbreaking
March 11, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Wow. "NIH" canceled my co-mentored (with Dave Sulzer) PhD student's F31 funding. His work is on understanding the genetics and neuroscience of language learning disorders. F31 provides no indirect $ to Columbia, just pays his salary. Not that it should matter, but he's an American citizen. W.T.F.
March 11, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Scientists:

which NSF programs had their POs laid off? which NIH study sections have been allowed to proceed? have NoAs for non competing renewals been issued?

If it were March 2020 then academic twitter would know the answers. As it is, are we operating in the dark?
February 19, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
I escaped poverty because I am a scientist.

And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation.

A 🧵:
February 18, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Reposted by Daniela Witten
Today I presented on "what is AI?" for family medicine at our hospital. After a smidgen of history I said that the practical definition is this tweet by @danielawitten.bsky.social

And it really resonates. such a good definition.
December 12, 2024 at 7:29 PM
This is a serious issue, and I’m worried that in today’s highly polarized climate, it is not receiving the attention it deserves.
@nytimes.com fact checkers- what now??!!

surely “keeping it real” means “on the real number line” (versus nominal, ie categorical) in this context?

these are dark days, the least we can do is over-explain our statistics jokes correctly

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/b...
December 6, 2024 at 3:48 PM
@nytimes.com fact checkers- what now??!!

surely “keeping it real” means “on the real number line” (versus nominal, ie categorical) in this context?

these are dark days, the least we can do is over-explain our statistics jokes correctly

www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/b...
December 6, 2024 at 2:12 PM
does this place like svd jokes ?
November 24, 2024 at 11:06 AM