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Jean Opsomer

Vice President; Statistical Fellows Committee Co-Chair

Jean Opsomer, PhD, is a senior statistician with 25+ years of experience applying statistical methods to answer research questions. He is currently responsible for the statistical methodology of several large-scale Westat survey projects. He has served on 6 panels of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and is a current member of the Statistics Canada Advisory Committee on Statistical Methods. He is the Chair of the Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association and Associate Editor for Survey Methodology. He is also Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland, College Park. 

Previously, Opsomer was a faculty member in the Departments of Statistics at Colorado State University and Iowa State University. The author or coauthor of 80 peer-reviewed articles, he has developed statistical methods for flexible model building, variable selection, and evaluation, with an emphasis on semiparametric and hierarchical modeling and statistical data integration. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute. He is the recipient of the Carver Medal of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the Cox Award of the Washington Statistical Society.

In recognition of his contributions to the field, Opsomer has been named a Westat Senior Statistical Fellow and co-chairs the Statistical Fellows Committee, which provides consultation on important survey statistics issues and addresses recent advances in applied statistics.

Education

  • PhD, Operations Research , Cornell University
  • MBA, Finance, University of Chicago
  • MS, Management Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium

Areas of Expertise

Selected Publications

Jones J.M., Opsomer J.D., Stone M., Benoit T., Ferg R.A., Stramer S.L., and Busch M.P. (2022).

Updated US Infection- and vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence estimates based on blood donations, July 2020–December 2021.

Journal of the American Medical Association, 328(3), 298-301.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Erciulescu A.L. and Opsomer J.D. (2022).

A model-based approach to predict employee compensation components.

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series C, 71(5), 1503-1520.
Source | DOI
Miller M.J., Himschoot A., Fitch N., Jawalkar S., Freeman D., Hilton C., Berney K., Guy G.P., Benoit T.J., Clarke K.E.N., Busch M.P., Opsomer J.D., Stramer S.L., Hall A.J., Gundlapalli A.V., MacNeil A., McCord R., Sunshine G., Howard-Williams M., Dunphy C., and Jones J.M. (2022).

Association of trends in Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) seroprevalence and state-issued nonpharmaceutical interventions: United States, 1 August 2020 to 30 March 2021.

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 75(Suppl. 2), S264-S270.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Busch M.P., Stramer S.L., Stone M., Yu E.A., Grebe E., Notari E., Saa P., Ferg R., Molina Manrique I., Weil N., Fink R.V., Levy M.E., Green V., Cyrus S., Williamson P.C., Haynes J., Groves J., Krysztof D., Custer B., Kleinman S., Biggerstaff B.J., Opsomer J.D., and Jones J.M. (2022).

Population-weighted seroprevalence from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, vaccination, and hybrid immunity among US blood donations from January to December 2021.

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 75(Suppl. 2), S254-S263.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Fink R.V., Fisher L., Sulaeman H., Dave H., Levy M.E., McCann L., Di Germanio C., Notari E.P., Green V., Cyrus S., Williamson P., Saa P., Haynes J.M., Groves J., Mathew S., Kaidarova Z., Bruhn R., Grebe E., Opsomer J., Jones J.M., Miller M.J., Busch M.P., and Stone M. (2022).

How do we...form and coordinate a national serosurvey of SARS-CoV-2 within the blood collection industry?.

Transfusion, 62(7), 1321-1333.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Lennert-Cody C.E., McCracken M., Siu S., Oliveros-Ramos R., Maunder M.N., Aires-da-Silva A., Carvajal-Rodríguez J.M., Opsomer J.D., and de Barros P. (2022).

Single-cluster systematic sampling designs for shark catch size composition in a Central American longline fishery.

Fisheries Research, 251, 106320.
Source | DOI
Erciulescu A.L., Opsomer J.D., and Schneider B.J. (2022).

Statistical data integration using multilevel models to predict employee compensation.

Canadian Journal of Statistics.
Source | DOI
Stone M., Di Germanio C., Wright D.J., Sulaeman H., Dave H., Fink R.V., Notari E.P., Green V., Strauss D., Kessler D., Destree M., Saa P., Williamson P.C., Simmons G., Stramer S.L., Opsomer J., Jones J.M., Kleinman S., and Busch M.P. (2022).

Use of US blood donors for national serosurveillance of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 antibodies: Basis for an expanded national donor serosurveillance program.

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 74(5), 871-881.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Li Z., Lewis B., Berney K., Hallisey E., Williams A.M., Whiteman A., Rivera-González L.O., Clarke K.E.N., Clayton H., Tincher T., Opsomer J.D., Busch M.P., Gundlapalli A., and Jones J. (2022).

Social vulnerability and rurality associated with higher Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection-induced seroprevalence: A nationwide blood donor study, United States, July 2020 – June 2021.

Clinical Infectious Diseases, 75(1), e133-e143.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Jones J.M., Stone M., Sulaeman H., Fink R.V., Dave H., Levy M.E., Di Germanio C., Green V., Notari E., Saa P., Biggerstaff B.J., Strauss D., Kessler D., Vassallo R., Reik R., Rossmann S., Destree M., Nguyen K.-A., Sayers M., Lough C., Bougie D.W., Ritter M., Latoni G., Weales B., Sime S., Gorlin J., Brown N.E., Gould C.V., Berney K., Benoit T.J., Miller M.J., Freeman D., Kartik D., Fry A.M., Azziz-Baumgartner E., Hall A.J., MacNeil A., Gundlapalli A.V., Basavaraju S.V., Gerber S.I., Patton M.E., Custer B., Williamson P., Simmons G., Thornburg N.J., Kleinman S., Stramer S.L., Opsomer J.D., and Busch M.P. (2021).

Estimated US infection- and vaccine-induced SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence based on blood donations, July 2020-May 2021.

Journal of the American Medical Association, 326(14), 1400-1409.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Xu X., Meyer M.C., and Opsomer J.D. (2021).

Improved variance estimation for inequality-constrained domain mean estimators using survey data.

Journal of Statistical Planning and Inference, 215, 47-71.
Source | DOI
Erciulescu A.L., Opsomer J.D., and Breidt F.J. (2021).

A bridging model to reconcile statistics based on data from multiple surveys.

Annals of Applied Statistics, 15(2), 1068-1079.
Source | DOI
Opsomer J., Chen A., Chang W.-Y., and Foley D. (2021).

U.S. employment higher in the private sector than in the education sector for U.S.-trained doctoral scientists and engineers: Findings from the 2019 Survey of Doctorate Recipients.

(NSF 21-319). Alexandria, VA: National Science Foundation.
Source
Piesse A., Opsomer J., Dohrmann S., DiGaetano R., Morganstein D., Taylor K., Carusi C., and Hyland A. (2021).

Longitudinal uses of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.

Tobacco Regulatory Science, 7(1), 3-16.
Source | DOI | PubMed
Oliva-Aviles C., Meyer M.C., and Opsomer J.D. (2020).

Estimation and inference of domain means subject to qualitative constraints.

Survey Methodology, 46(2), 145-180.
Source
Harrison S.P., Schoen R., Atcitty D., Fiegener R., Goodhue R., Havens K., House C.C., Johnson R.C., Leger E., Lesser V., Opsomer J.D., Shaw N., Soltis D.E., Swinton S.M., Toth E., and Young S.A. (2020).

Preparing for the need for a supply of native seed.

Ecological Restoration, 38(4), 203-206.
DOI
Meilan-Vila A., Opsomer J.D., Francisco-Fernandez M., and Crujeiras R.M. (2020).

A goodness-of-fit test for regression models with spatially correlated errors.

Test, 29, 728-749.
DOI
Olson K., Smyth J.D., Horwitz R., Keeter S., Lesser V., Marken S., Mathiowetz N.A., McCarthy J.S., O'Brien E., Opsomer J.D., Steiger D., Sterrett D., Su J., Suzer-Gurtekin Z.T., Turakhia C., and Wagner J. (2021).

Transitions from telephone surveys to self-administered and mixed-mode surveys: AAPOR task force report.

Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 9(3), 381-411.
DOI
Dohrmann S., Jones M., Kalton G., and Opsomer J. (2019).

A review of the Address Coverage Enhancement Scheme for in-person household surveys.

Proceedings of the 2019 Survey Research Methods Section of the American Statistical Association. (pp. 1454-1463).
Source (PDF)
Erciulescu A.L. and Opsomer J.D. (2019).

A model-based approach to predict employee compensation components.

Joint Statistical Meetings Proceedings. Government Statistics Section. (pp. 1601-1623). Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association.
Source (PDF)
Oliva-Aviles C., Meyer M.C., and Opsomer J.D. (2019).

Checking validity of monotone domain mean estimators.

Canadian Journal of Statistics, 47, 315-331.
DOI
Ma H., Ogawa T.K., Sminkey T.R., Breidt F.J., Lesser V.M., Opsomer J.D., Foster J.R., and Van Voorhees D.A. (2018).

Pilot surveys to improve monitoring of marine recreational fisheries in Hawaii.

Fisheries Research, 204, 197-208.
DOI
Breidt F.J., Opsomer J.D., and Huang C.M. (2018).

Model-assisted survey estimation with imperfectly matched auxiliary data.

In Predictive econometrics and big data (pp. 21-35). (Studies in Computational Intelligence). New York, NY: Springer.
Source
Yu H., Wang Y., Opsomer J.D., Wang P., and Ponce N. (2018).

A design-based approach to small area estimation using semiparametric generalized linear mixed models.

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A, 181, 1151-1167.
DOI
De Brabanter K., Cao F., Gijbels I., and Opsomer J.D. (2018).

Local polynomial regression with correlated errors in random design and unknown correlation structure.

Biometrika, 105(3), 681-690.
DOI
Breidt F.J. and Opsomer J.D. (2017).

Model-assisted survey estimation with modern prediction techniques.

Statistical Science, 32(2), 16.
DOI
Hernandez-Stumpfhauser D., Breidt F.J., and Opsomer J.D. (2016).

Variational approximations for selecting hierarchical models of circular data in a small area estimation application.

Statistics in Transition, 17(2), 91-104.
Source
Wu J., Meyer M.C., and Opsomer J.D. (2016).

Survey estimation of domain means that respect natural orderings.

Canadian Journal of Statistics, 44(4), 431-444.
DOI
Opsomer J.D., Breidt F.J., White M., and Li Y. (2016).

Successive difference replication variance estimation in two-phase sampling.

Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 4(1), 43-70.
DOI
Ma H., Ogawa T.K., Breidt F.J., Lesser V.M., Opsomer J.D., Sminkey T.R., Hawkins C., Bagwill A., and Van Voorhees D.A. (2016).

Pilot surveys of shore fishing on Oahu, Hawaii.

Proceedings of the Survey Research Methods Section, American Statistical Association (pp. 2355-2369). Alexandria, VA: American Statistical Association.
Source (PDF)
Breidt F.J., Opsomer J.D., and Sanchez-Borrego I. (2016).

Nonparametric variance estimation under fine stratification: An alternative to collapsed strata.

Journal of the American Statistical Association, 111(514), 822-833.
DOI
Ranalli M.G., Breidt F.J., and Opsomer J.D. (2016).

Nonparametric regression methods for small area estimation.

In M. Pratesi (Ed.), Analysis of poverty data by small area estimation (pp. 187-204). New York, NY: Wiley.
DOI
Hernandez-Stumpfhauser D., Breidt F.J., and Opsomer J.D. (2016).

Hierarchical Bayesian small area estimation for circular data.

Canadian Journal of Statistics, 44(4), 416-430.
DOI

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