FHM ASC2025 Plenary Keynote Lecture

The Frank Hansford-Miller Fellow in 2025 was Associate Professor Sofia S. Villar of the United Kingdom Medical Research Council (MRC) Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge, The University of Cambridge, UK who gave the plenary keynote talk at the Australian Statistics Conference 2025, held at Curtin University December 1-4. Sofia won the FHM Fellowship, which is offered biennially by the WA Branch of the SSA through the auspices of the Frank Hansford-Miller Fellowship Committee. She was nominated by Michael Doherty of the Kids Research Institute of Australia where she mainly resided for most of her visit.  The unusual juxta positioning of the FHM Fellowship and the ASC2025 Conference due to COVID (the FHM Fellow in 2021, Manuel Herrera, delivered his talk electronically from the UK in 2021) gave the serendipitous result of allowing this year’s Fellow to speak at the premier event in the calendar for the Statistical Society of Australia given that the Conference ASC2025 was held in Perth.

Her talk was titled:

“Recent Advances for the Design, Analysis and Implementation of Response-Adaptive Designs: Are We There Yet?”

Abstract

Response-adaptive designs, where treatment allocation dynamically adjusts based on observed outcomes, have a rich history dating back to the 1930s, even predating the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) in 1948. While theoretically appealing, their practical implementation in clinical trials has faced significant challenges. This talk will present three recent advances developed by my group that bridge the gap between theory and practice. Each contribution addresses a critical aspect of response-adaptive designs, encompassing innovative design strategies (introducing a new optimal allocation proportion from a finite sample perspective), novel analytical approaches (exact tests and allocation probability tests), and practical implementation solutions (a mapping strategy to facilitate the seamless integration of response-adaptive designs into clinical trial workflows). These advances, while motivated by the context of clinical trials, have broader implications for improving the efficiency and ethical conduct of experiments in various domains, including digital experimentation.

About the Speaker

Sofia showed interest in beginning ties with the biostatistical (and broader statistical) community within Western Australia. In particular, Sofia wanted to explore collaborations with statisticians based at The Kids Research Institute Australia that share an interest in innovative clinical trial designs, in addition to visiting departments at the local universities (including the School of Population and Global Health at The University of Western Australia). Sofia was also interested in exploring mentoring students and postdocs and hosting discussions with early career statisticians. Establishing a link between our local trial statisticians and the MRC Biostatistics Unit enhanced the reputation and potential productivity of the Western Australian biostatistical community.  Sofia has two young boys who love playing soccer, her husband is an engineer, and she loves to run 3km runs around Cambridge. She is of Spanish descent coming from a small town in Argentina originally.

Sofia, having spent some time in Spain doing her postgraduate study, in particular, gaining her PhD in 2012 PhD Cum Laude, Business Administration and Quantitative Methods, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, completed postdoctoral studies and worked in England for 13 years.