Kaidi Kang

Kaidi Kang

Assistant Professor Biostatistics and Data Science Wake Forest University School of Medicine

About me

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Data Science at Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSM) beginning June 2025. I earned my Ph.D. in Biostatistics from Vanderbilt University in 2025, where I was fortunate to be advised by Dr. Simon Vandekar.

My research centers on advancing and applying statistical methodology to address critical challenges in various biomedical fields, including Psychiatry, Psychology, Alzheimer’s disease and neuroscience. I am especially interested in leveraging and integrating data from large-scale, multi-source studies to generate insights from a biostatistical perspective that advances research in these fields.

Current research includes:

  • Developing a universal effect size reporting framework
  • Enhancing the replicability of neuroimaging studies through study design and statistical techniques
  • Advancing longitudinal modeling techniques to characterize the Alzheimer’s disease progression across the disease spectrum
  • Quantifying subject-specific cognitive resilience in patients with Alzheimer’s disease

I also pursue broad collaborative interests across medicine and public health. If you are interested in collaboration, please feel free to contact me at kaidi.kang@wfusm.edu

Recent News

[Jan 2024] I will present my work on the detrimental longitudinal design in ABCD at the ABCD Insights & Innovation Meeting (AIIM) held at NIH from Mar 3-4, 2024. Come and talk with me if you are there as well and interested in my work!

[Jan 2024] My paper published in Psychometrika last year was highlighted as the top 5 most downloaded papers from the journal in 2023!

[Oct 2023] 3rd place at Midwest Kendo tournament, St. Louis, MO.
I participated in the 2023 Midwest Kendo tournament in St. Louis, MO from Oct 7-8, 2023, and won the 3rd place in mudansha (无段者, people below black-belt rank) division. I also passed the promotional test held on the next day and was promoted to Sho-dan (the entry-level black-belt rank) in Kendo!

[Oct 2023] New paper!
My collaboration paper in the field of health equity, Differences in Health Professionals’ Engagement With Electronic Health Records Based on Inpatient Race and Ethnicity, has been accepted at JAMA Network Open!

[Aug 2023] Contributed talk at JSM, Toronto, Canada.
I attended and presented my work on Study design features that improve the effect sizes in brain-wide association studies at the Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM) 2023.

[Jul 2023] 3rd place at All US National Kendo Championships, Rochester, MI.
I was selected to the Southeast team to compete for National Champions at the All-US Kendo Championships – the highest-level Kendo tournament in the US. We won 3rd place representing the Mudansha team from the southeastern region! This achievement is the result of the hard work and sweat of every team member!

[Jun 2023] Student paper award at NESS, Boston, MA.
I presented my work on Alzheimer’s disease progression modeling in the student paper competition session at the 36th New England Statistics Symposium (NESS), and won the NESS Studet Paper Award!

[May 2023] Invited talk at SMI 2023, Minneapolis, MN.
I gave an invited talk about my work on Study design features that improve the effect sizes in brain-wide association studies in the session “Collaborative Case Study: Statistical Methods and Findings from Large Consortia Studies” at the Statistical Methods in Imaging (SMI 2023) Conference.

[May 2023] New preprint!
This work is the 2nd and 3rd chapters of my dissertation work!
Study design features that improve effect sizes in cross-sectional and longitudinal brain-wide association studies

[Mar 2023] Blitz talk at the 4th Annual Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day, Nashville, TN.
I gave a blitz talk and poster presentation about my work on Alzheimer’s disease progression modeling at the 4th Annual Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research Day held by Vanderbilt Memory & Alzheimer’s Center, and was awarded as the Best Blitz Talk of the year.

[Mar 2023] Contributed talk at ENAR, Nashville, TN.
I presented my work on Study design features that improve the effect sizes in brain-wide association studies at the ENAR 2023.