Bio
Julie Josse is a senior researcher at Inria (France’s national research center in digital science), where she leads the PreMeDICaL team (Precision Medicine by Data Integration and Causal Learning) in collaboration with Inserm (the national research center in health). Her expertise spans missing data, causal inference, and machine learning techniques for healthcare applications. She specializes in developing statistical and computational tools to tackle challenges in personalized medicine, with a focus on integrating multi-source clinical data to improve decision-making. Julie’s journey began in the statistics department of an Agronomy school (Agrocampus Ouest), where she was trained in the « French data analysis school » and worked closely with interdisciplinary researchers, sparking her interest in transversal studies. She completed her PhD in 2010, which was awarded the French Statistical Society’s Best PhD in Applied Statistics. In 2013, she received a prestigious Marie Curie European Union grant to expand her research potential, spending 18 months at Stanford University. She joined Inria in 2020 after serving as a Professor of statistics at École Polytechnique, where she also led the Master’s program in Data Science for Business in partnership with HEC Paris and being a visiting researcher at Google Brain Paris. Julie’s contributions include more than 80 published articles, three books in applied statistics, and open-source software tools like the R packages FactoMineR, missMDA, and denoiseR. She is deeply committed to reproducible research and contributes to the R community as a member of the R Foundation and RForwards, promoting diversity and inclusion. Driven by a passion for translational research, Julie’s mission is to advance methodological innovation and deliver impactful applications in bio-sciences and health.
Perso: I had the privilege of growing up in Africa and French Polynesia experiences that shaped my curiosity and outlook on life. Later, I moved to Brittany, a stunning region of France, before discovering the vibrancy of Paris and now enjoying life in the sunny south of France. Beyond my passion for statistics, I love traveling—an adventure that began on horseback in my youth—and exploring the world’s beauty. I’m captivated by nature and science, avidly following resources like Science Friday and admiring initiatives like Wildlife Photographer of the Year. I also have a strong interest in humanitarian issues and aspire to apply my skills more directly to such causes in the future.
Outreach: Interview in Academie des technologies (French, English) – Interview in Montpellier – Interview in medium.