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SUMMARY:Kirk Public Lecture | A proxy window into the beautiful and challe
 nging world of causal attribution - Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen (University of 
 Pennsylvania)
DTSTART:20260427T150000Z
DTEND:20260427T160000Z
UID:TALK230785@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Establishing cause and effect relationships outside of experim
 ental settings is well known to be a challenging task with far reaching im
 plications for the scientific enterprise across research disciplines. None
 theless\, due to ethical concerns or practical considerations\, experiment
 al evaluation of causal effects is often not feasible. For example\, learn
 ing about the potential harmful effect of air pollution on asthma attacks 
 cannot readily be studied in a randomized experiment for the obvious ethic
 al reasons\; likewise evaluating the real-world effectiveness and safety o
 f COVID-19 vaccines necessarily requires working with observational data w
 here vaccine uptake and exposure to COVID-19 reflect their natural populat
 ion dynamics. The main challenge of causal attribution is bias due to hidd
 en confounding. We will present recent advances in Statistical Science tha
 t demonstrate how credible causal attribution from observational studies r
 emains possible despite hidden confounding\, provided certain proxies (eve
 n if noisy) of hidden confounders can be measured. &nbsp\;As we argue\, su
 ch proxies abound in many practical settings\, examples of which we will d
 escribe from infectious disease\, environmental and cancer epidemiology\, 
 providing a revealing window into the beautiful and challenging world of c
 ausal attribution in epidemiological inquiry.\nWhat is a Kirk Distinguishe
 d Visiting Fellow? The fellowship allows field-leading mathematicians from
  under-represented groups to join the programme as influential role models
 \, helping to address historical imbalances and promote diversity within m
 athematical research.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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