About the author of softRX freeware...

Robert L. (Bob) Obenchain, Ph.D.

Risk Benefit Statistics

Biostatistics, Observational Studies, Sub-Group Differential Response,
Treatment Selection Bias and Confounding, Incremental Cost-Effectiveness,
Maximum Likelihood Shrinkage in Linear Models


Professional Interests:

I continue doing active research and development on methods of adjustment for treatment-selection-bias in Observational studies. My recent focus has been on Nonparametric and Unsupervised methods that I call: NU Learning ...implemented via my newest NU.Learning R-package ...[formerly named LocalControlStrategy].

I retired from Eli Lilly in August of 2007, where I was a Senior Research Advisor and a Statistics Group Leader for Health Outcomes Research in the US Medical division, Commercial Information Sciences.  Before my 17 years at Lilly, I was at Glaxo in the Research Triangle Park, NC, for almost 5 years.  Before that, I spent 17 years in the Applied Statistics and Quality Assurance Technology centers of AT&T Bell Labs and Bell Communications Research in New Jersey.

I received my PhD in Mathematical Statistics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1969. I was initially one of several candidates studying under N. L. Johnson but, ultimately, P.K. Sen signed my thesis in June 1969. I served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association, Theory and Methods, from 1980 to 1985 under Stephen Stigler and Carl Morris. I was elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1997.

I served as a Methods Partner with the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) of the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health in 2009-2010. I also served as a Senior Research Fellow at the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS) in Research Triangle Park, NC, 2010-2017. I also served as an Adjunct Professor of Biostatistics, first at IU Medical School, Indianapolis, during 2005-2013 then at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2013-2015.


Hobbies:

I'm now much too old and out-of-shape to ski, but it certainly was much more fun for me than golf ever was!!!

Our wine cellar now contains only a few bottles from California and New Zealand.

While some people apparently earn a living doing this, it was just a hobby for me; guess I'm a true hacker! I started out by learning C at Bell Labs and authoring more than 20 freeware MS-DOS applications with CGA/VGA graphics for Statistical Process Control which I uploaded to CompuServe PCAPP, Library 13, Engr/Tech/Sci between 1988 and 1997.

Later, I developed a few Windows applications using the C API. By then I had gradually shifted to concentrate on development of functions and scripts for open-source statistical systems. I am the author of 3 CRAN R-packages (NU.Learning, ICEinfer and RXshrink.)