Paula Moraga
(She/Her)
Assistant Professor of Statistics
Paula Moraga is Professor of Statistics at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. Prior to KAUST, she was appointed to academic statistics positions at universities in the UK, the USA and Australia. Paula received her Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Valencia, and her Master’s in Biostatistics from Harvard University.
As the Principal Investigator of the Geospatial Statistics and Health Surveillance research group at KAUST, Paula develops innovative statistical methods and computational tools for geospatial data analysis and health surveillance, including methods to understand geographic and temporal patterns of diseases, assess their relationships with potential risk factors, identify clusters, measure inequalities, evaluate impacts of interventions, and quickly detect outbreaks.
Paula is deeply committed to providing comprehensive tools to national health organizations that allow them to make the best use of their data to reduce inequalities and to improve the health and quality of life of all populations. In fact, her work has directly informed strategic policy development on reducing the burden of malaria in Malawi, leptospirosis in Brazil, and cancer in Australia.
Paula is a fervent advocate for open science and reproducible research. She has created educational materials that impact learning on a large scale, and made her books Geospatial Health Data and Spatial Statistics for Data Science freely available online. She has also implemented statistical methods in open-source software so that they are widely available and provide benefits beyond her own applications.
Paula received the prestigious Letten Prize by the Letten Foundation and the Young Academy of Norway for her pioneering research in disease surveillance, and her significant contributions to the development of sustainable solutions for health and the environment globally.
