From August 21 to 22, 2021, the first 2021 Shenzhen International Conference on Biostatistics was held in the Convention Center at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). The event was organized by the Department of Statistics and Data Science (STAT-DS) and the Center for Biostatistics at SUSTech.

There were sixteen experts and scholars in the field of biomedical statistics from well-known universities nationally and globally that gathered to present high-level academic reports to more than 300 guests attending both online and offline.

Dongfeng GU, Acting Vice President of SUSTech and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), delivered a speech online at the opening ceremony. He congratulated everyone for coming together to organize the first 2021 Shenzhen International Conference on Biostatistics

He said that the era of big data has brought new opportunities and challenges for interdisciplinary integration. He looks forward to the related departments working closely together to meet the country’s needs, develop the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and promote the cross-disciplinary integration of relevant disciplines such as statistics, data science, biology, chemistry, and medicine.

It is hoped that the cross-integration of related disciplines will strengthen cooperation between academia and industry and make significant contributions towards developing a world-class biomedical statistics department.

Xueming YANG, Dean of the College of Science and Academician of CAS, also spoke at the forum via video link. He said that SUSTech and the Center for Biostatistics would continue collaborating and take advantage of the high-quality resources and talent to promote cross-integration in research and encourage innovative research on big data.

They will promote interdisciplinary theoretical research, produce major scientific research results, build a first-class biostatistical research base, and provide solutions for biological and medical technologies.

The forum aims to promote the exchange of research results in the field of biomedical statistics and strengthen the links between experts and scholars from related fields and industries.

Well-known scholars in biomedical statistics from fourteen universities, including Harvard University, University of Oxford, Peking University (PKU), and University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), gave presentations at the forum.

During the two-day forum, participants discussed in-depth the latest developments and trends in the frontier fields of international biomedical statistics. They agreed on further promoting interdisciplinary exchanges and cooperation in various areas of biomedical statistics in the context of big data.