Tianhua "Tim" Niu, PhD

Dr. Tianhua "Tim" Niu obtained his Sc.D. in Biological Sciences at Harvard University’s School of Public Health (also called Harvard School of Public Health, or HSPH) under the tutelage of Professor Edgar Haber, Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of Division of Biological Sciences, HSPH, a world-leading cardiologist and molecular biologist on renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and its biological effects in regulating cardiovascular function. From 1958 to 1961, Professor Edgar Haber’s postdoctoral mentor at National Institutes of Health was Christian Boehmer Anfinsen Jr., a Nobel Prize Laureate in Chemistry in 1972, who developed Anfinsen’s Principle in Biochemistry. 

Dr. Niu completed his doctoral thesis in 1998 on the role of genetic variants of the human gene that encodes AGT protein, a critical component of RAAS, in blood pressure regulation under the guidance and co-supervision of Professor Edgar Haber, Professor Xiping Xu, and Professor Klaus Lindpaintner at Division of Biological Sciences, HSPH. During his doctoral study, he also worked on applications of linkage analysis and transmission/disequilibrium test under the mentorship of Professor Nan Laird and Professor Nicholas Schork, who were world renowned biostatistician and statistical geneticist, and members of his Doctoral Thesis Dissertation Committee. Dr. Niu conducted his postdoctoral research at Program for Population Genetics, HSPH, and during his doctoral training, he primarily performed research in statistical genetics and biostatistics under the guidance and mentorship of Professor Jun S. Liu (elected to National Academy of Sciences of the USA in 2025) at Department of Statistics, Harvard University. He completed his Master of Science in Computer Science at Northeastern University in 2004, and during this time, he took graduate courses instructed by Professor Samuel Gutmann at Department of Mathematics, and Professor Kenneth Baclawski at College of Computer Science, Northeastern University, who significantly cultivated his passion and love for mathematics and statistics. 

He became a permanent member of Upsilon Pi Epsilon, International Honor Society in the Computing Sciences since 2002. Dr. Niu started his faculty career as an Assistant Professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2002 to 2008, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Epidemiology from 2004 to 2005, and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology from 2005 to 2008 at Department of Epidemiology, HSPH. During 2006-2008, he worked under the guidance of Dean’s Office and other distinguished professors such as Professor David Hunter, Professor Peter Kraft, and Professor Lee-Jen Wei at HSPH, as Acting Director of HSPH Bioinformatics Core, on the School’s Bioinformatics Initiative. He also worked with Professor David Hunter’s Group on skin cancer, colorectal cancer, and breast cancer studies. From 2007 to 2008, he worked as a Biostatistician at Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, led by department chair Professor Joan Brugge (elected to National Academy of Sciences of the USA in 2001). 

Afterwards, Dr. Niu became Assistant Professor at Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine from 2008 to 2012, Assistant Professor at Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics (now called Department of Biostatistics and Data Science), Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine from 2012 to 2014, and then, Clinical Assistant Professor at that department from 2014 to 2017. He joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Tulane University School of Medicine in 2017, focusing on Biostatistics and Bioinformatics.