Rate My Professor Tyler VanderWeele

Tyler J. VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He also serves as Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics. He received his Ph.D. in biostatistics from Harvard University in 2006. He began his academic career as an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Chicago in 2006 and returned to Harvard as Associate Professor of Epidemiology in 2009, later advancing to his current endowed professorship.

His methodological research focuses on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences, along with psychosocial measurement theory. His empirical research spans psychiatric and social epidemiology, the science of happiness and flourishing, and the study of religion and health. He is the recipient of the 2017 Presidents’ Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS). Dr. VanderWeele has published over 600 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is the author of the books Explanation in Causal Inference (2015), Modern Epidemiology (2021), Measuring Well-Being (2021), Handbook of Religion and Health (2023), and A Theology of Health (2024). He also writes a monthly blog on topics related to human flourishing for Psychology Today.