# What is Zane doing right now?

As of April 2, 2022 this is what I am working on.

## My projects

• My main area of interest continues to be the immune response to the seasonal flu vaccine. I’m still doing a lot of exploratory data analysis and figuring out the best way to quantify immune responses to different flu strains after vaccination.
• An especially interesting question to me right now is determining how well past vaccines have protected against future (well, they are past now) strains.
• I’m trying to get through Statistical Rethinking by Richard McElreath. Unfortunately, I’ve been sufficiently indoctrinated by frequentist methods and I’m having some difficulties, so I’ve taken a temporary hiatus to read Bayesian Statistics the Fun Way.
• Trying to find every norovirus challenge study that’s ever been conducted through systematic searching and citation dredging.

## Collaborations

• My colleague Yang Ge fit some Bayesian models using brms. I’m converting the code to the rethinking package, and also providing what limited advice I can about his models. We’re working on a few projects about norovirus (vaccines) and one about seasonal influenza vaccines.
• I’m working with Skarlet Velasquez on analyzing the relationship between a certain type of environmental chemical exposure and preterm births in Puerto Rico.
• Making a lot of figures for a longitudinal analysis of influenza immune response trajectories. Most of the paper and analysis is being done by Meng-Hsuan Sung.

## Service commitments

• I am the president of GSEB (Graduate Scholars of Epidemiology and Biostats) and I spend at least an hour a week organizing events and that kind of thing.
• I’m on my department’s curriculum committee and we’re currently working on some revisions to our courses and degree competencies.

## Other stuff

• I’m not teaching right now (or recently), but I am planning to mentor a student for this year’s Population Biology of Infectious Disease REU!
• Trying to read when I get a chance:
• Getting what you came for: The smart student’s guide to getting a PhD by Robert Peters
• The priory of the orange tree by Samantha Shannon
• Trying to find a new set of glasses frames that I like and can afford.