Daniel Sewell is an associate professor in the Biostatistics department, College of Public Health. 

Tell us about your hometown; how did it shape you?

I grew up in Springfield, IL. It was the people around me, rather than anything specific to the city, that shaped me, especially my brother who taught me to get outside of my comfort zone.

Tell us about your hobbies/outside interests.

Piano has long been my escape. It has been a stress reliever as well as a mental stimulus. In fact, anytime in grad school I had a major exam, I would always sit down at a piano and just improvise for a while; better than coffee.

What is your favorite hang out place?

Macbride Nature Recreation Area is a very dear place to me. When things get too stressful, I can go out there where I’ve got the trails memorized and just wander. My kids go with me, and we just enjoy the beauty of the area. Or rather, I enjoy the beauty of the area while the kids climb, run, splash, yell, etc. Oh, who am I kidding, I do those things right alongside them.

Can you share a recent book/movie/performance that you found compelling and why?

I just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Ministry for the Future.” Robinson is one of the most inventive and brilliant authors I’ve read, and it was amazing to see his creativity applied to the climate crisis that we are facing right now. It seems every chapter yielded deep insights or was profoundly thought provoking.

How would you explain to a child what you do?

Ever wonder how we know which medicines work and which don’t, or what things make us sick? Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but why? Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, while some others who don’t smoke do get cancer. It turns out that scientists need to use math in clever ways to be able to say with confidence what’s good for us and what’s bad, which medicines work and which don’t. My job is to use math to help other scientists make trustworthy claims that protect us from dangers and show our doctors how to make us better.

What is the best advice you received as a student and do you still follow that advice today?

I once had a professor say, “There are two kinds of people in the world. The kind that go to others for help, and the kind that others come to for help.” This view is too extreme to be true, of course, but it did make a very large impact on me. It forced me to make a decision about who I wanted to be: I wanted to become the self-reliant expert. I’ve since realized that good science always occurs in teams, but nevertheless I have continued to strive to be an expert and a leader in my area.

Tell us about a project or achievement of which you are particularly proud.

I, along with a colleague Kelly Baker, am leading a research project in Kenya studying enteric infections in infants. We’re developing statistical and mathematical tools for better understanding disease pathways. This is a highly complex and widespread problem with plenty of intellectual knots that are fun to unravel, but more than that it encapsulates the reason why I am here at the University of Iowa Department of Biostatistics. I came from a pure statistics background but moved to biostatistics to make sure my research was doing the world meaningful good. When I traveled to Kenya, saw the families and their living conditions, I knew I had come to the right place.

What piece of advice would you give to today's students?

Don’t let the fear of failure guide your decisions. I started to go down the wrong career path because I thought it would be easy. It was, but it was also utterly unsatisfying. As I challenged myself more and more, I learned what I was capable of. I think the only way for you to know your potential is to put it to the test. Go, and see your what you’re made of. Try the more challenging path; no regrets lie that way.

In closing, what words of wisdom would you like to share, what quotation or person inspires you, what does the next chapter look like?

Since Robinson is on the mind: “I am the tide running under the world that no one sees or feels. I happen in the present but am told only in the future, and then they think they speak of the past, but really they are always speaking about the present. I do not exist and yet I am everything. You know what I am. I am History. Now make me good.” -Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future