2024 Banting-CANSSI Ontario Discovery Award recipient: Dr. Justin Slater

The Banting Research Foundation and CANSSI Ontario are pleased to announce the University of Guelph recipient of the 2024 Banting–CANSSI Ontario Discovery Award in Biostatistics is Dr. Justin Slater. 

Dr. Justin Slater is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Guelph. He has previously held positions as a biostatistical analyst at the Institute for Clinical and Evaluative Sciences, and analytics lead at Cytel.

He completed his PhD in March 2023 at the University of Toronto and began his tenure-track position at the University of Guelph shortly thereafter. Dr. Slater’s research now focuses on modeling underreported infectious diseases, like Hepatitis C virus (HCV), at both individual and population levels, aiming to estimate disease prevalence with minimal data. 

His awarded project, “Statistical Emulators and Discrepancy Functions for Agent-Based Models for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV),” addresses the challenge of tracking HCV, which spreads through activities like injection drug use and sexual intercourse. Traditional agent-based models (ABMs) used for simulating HCV dynamics are time-consuming; hence, Dr. Slater’s work aims to develop advanced statistical emulators that can enhance the speed and accuracy of these simulations, including accounting for undiagnosed cases of HCV. His innovative methods will potentially transform the way HCV infection rates and risk factors are understood in Ontario. 

Agent-based models are a critical tool for simulating the spread and impact of Hepatitis C, and statistical emulators help bridge gaps between model predictions and actual observed data. Dr. Slater’s current study will utilize advanced statistical techniques to refine these models, thereby enhancing our understanding of HCV dynamics and improving public health interventions.