Marta PITTAVINO

Education

2016  Ph.D. in Biostatistics, Universität Zürich, UZH, Structured PhD Program in “Epidemiology
and Biostatistics”, Faculty of Science, Zurich, Switzerland. Supervisor: Prof. R. Furrer.

2009 -- 2011  M.Sc. in Mathematics, graduated “cum laude”, with the Best Master Thesis Award, Università degli Studi di Torino, UNITO,
Torino, Italy. Supervisors: Prof. E. Venturino and Prof. M. Giacobini.

2006 -- 2009  B.Sc. in Mathematics, Università degli Studi di Torino, UNITO, Torino, Italy.

2001 -- 2006  Maturità Scientifica, Liceo Scientifico ‘Giuseppe Peano’, Cuneo, Italy.

Professional Experience

From 29/11/2023 -- currently  Assistant Professor in Statistics with Tenure Track (RTD-B),
Ca’ Foscari Università of Venice (UNIVE), Department of Management, Venice School of Management (VSM), Venice, Italy.

02/2023 -- 11/2023  Assistant Professor in Statistics (RTD-A), Università degli Studi di Firenze (UNIFI),
Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications "Giuseppe Parenti" (DISIA), Florence, Italy.

09/2019 -- 02/2023  Senior Lecturer (Maître d’enseignement et de recherche) in Statistics, Université de Genève, UNIGE,
Research Center for Statistics, RCS, Geneva School of Economics and Management.
Lecturer for two Bachelor courses and a Master class, Master thesis advisor and Program Manager.

09/2017 -- 08/2019  Senior Research Associate in Statistics, UNIGE, GSEM, Geneva.
Scientific Coordinator, Senior Teaching Assistant and Program Manager for the Master of Science in
Business Analytics: MaBAn, https://www.unige.ch/gsem/en/programs/masters/business-analytics/.

01/2016 -- 08/2017  Post-Doctoral Scientist, International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, World Health
Organization, Nutritional Methodology and Biostatistics Group, Lyon. P.I.: Dr. P. Ferrari.

2012 -- 2015  Research Assistant, Universität Zürich, Section of Epidemiology and I-Math Institute, Zurich.

2011  Junior Statistician, Det Norske Veritas, DNV GL, Torino, Italy.

2009 -- 2010  Student Assistant, Università degli Studi di Torino, Math Department, Torino.

Research Fellowships and Visiting Periods Abroad

2025  Visiting Researcher at UZH, University of Zurich (UZH), Switzerland.
Invited by Prof. Reinhard Furrer, I spent one week as a visiting researcher at the
Department of Mathematical Modelling and Machine Learning, Applied Statistics Group, University of Zurich.

2024 -- currently  AGE-IT Affiliated Fellowship, research fellow for the AGE-IT (Ageing well in an ageing society) PNRR project.
AGE-IT Affiliated Fellowship Programme: https://ageit.eu/wp/fellows/

2024 -- currently  GCP Academic Fellow, academic fellow for the Geneva Center for Philanthropy,
GCP: https://www.unige.ch/philanthropie/en/centre/research-team/academic-fellow/marta-pittavino

2022  Visiting Researcher at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA
Invited by Prof. Roy Welsch, I spent one week as a visiting researcher at the MIT
Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.

Awards and Grants

2025  Short Research Trip, funded by Venice School of Management (VSM), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice.
Funding granted for a short-term research period abroad.

2025  Article selected as "2025 Editor’s Choice", in the Social Sciences section of the Journal
of Gerontology: Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, for the innovative
contribution: ”Kinlessness at Older Ages: Prevalence and Heterogeneity in 27 Countries”.

2024  MPDI Travel Grant, funded by MDPI - Academic Open Access Publishing.

2018  ISBA Travel Award, funded by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis.

2017  French Scientific Qualification for ‘Maître de Confèrence’, Section 26: Applied Mathematics
and Statistics, conferred by the French “Conseil national des universités”, CNU.

2013  Best Master Thesis Awards, Awards “Silver Medal” and “Luciana Picco Botta”, sponsored
by Universitá degli Studi di Torino, for the best thesis in Mathematics for the year in which I
graduated, A.A. 2010-2011: https://www.unito.it/ateneo/chi-siamo/migliori-laureati-e-laureate/archivio-migliori-laureati-e-laureate

2012  Fellowship “Post-graduate research abroad in interdisciplinary topics”, funded by the Caligara Foundation, https://www.fondazionecaligara.it/

2011  Scholarship “Master Thesis in interdisciplinary topics”, funded by Caligara Foundation, https://www.fondazionecaligara.it/

2009  “Homo Sapiens-Sapiens” Scholarship, funded by Inps, awarded to students with the highest 
grades during their undergraduate studies: http://www.inps.it/.

Statistical and Scientific Society memberships

2025 -- currently  Royal Statistical Society (RSS)

2019 -- currently  European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics (ENBIS)

2018 -- currently  Italian Statistical Society (SIS), CLADAG and AISP member

2018 International  Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA)

2015  American Statistical Society (ASA)

2014  International Biometric Society (IBS)

2014 -- currently  Swiss Statistical Society (SSS)

Editorial Activity

2024 -- currently
Guest Editor for the Scientific Journal Mathematics from MDPI,
for the Special Issue on "Bayesian Networks: Parameter and Structure
Learning with Their Real-World Applications for Decision Making".
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/mathematics/special_issues/1LH93RZ1T1

2025 -- currently
Invited Reviewer for the scientific journals:
- Demographic Research.
- Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization
- Mathematics - MDPI
- Stats - MDPI
- BMC Public Health
- Frontiers in Public Health
- The R Journal

Professional Services

Academic boards and committees

2024 -- currently  Member, Joint Committee of the VSM, UNIVE.

2023 -- currently  Member, Department Council of the VSM, UNIVE.

2023 -- 2024  Member, Erasmus Committee of the VSM, UNIVE.

2023 -- 2023  Member, Department Council of the DISIA, UNIFI.

2019 -- 2023  Member, Department Council of the GSEM, UNIGE.

2022 -- 2023  Member, MaBAn Scientific Committee, Master Program Committee of the GSEM, UNIGE.

2021 -- 2023  Vice-President, Participatory Council, ‘Conseil Participatif’, of the GSEM, UNIGE.

2020 -- 2021  Member, Participatory Council, ‘Conseil Participatif’, of the GSEM, UNIGE.

2020 -- 2023  Member, Commission for the Renewal of Teaching Staff Mandates of the GSEM, UNIGE.

2017 -- 2023  Member, MaBAn Advisory Board, responsible for the partnership between the GEM, ‘Groupement
des Entreprises Multinationales’, and GSEM, UNIGE.

Organization of scientific events

2024
Organizer and Chair, VSM Lecture: “Simultaneous Inference for Small Areas and Clusters”.
Speaker: Prof. Stefan Sperlich - Professor of Statistics and Econometrics, University of Geneva.
November 14, 2024, Venice School of Management (VSM), San Giobbe Economic Campus, Venice, Italy

2024
Organizer and Chair, "Bayesian Networks and Their Real-World Applications for Decision Making".
Webinar on Bayesian Networks organized for Mathematics - MDPI, Academic Open Access Publishing.
Speaker: Dr. Scutari and Dr. Carrodano, two experts on Bayesian Networks topic.
October 10, 2024: https://sciforum.net/event/Mathematics-11

2024
Co-organizer, Primo General Meeting AGE-IT, annual conference of the PNRR AGE-IT project.
May 20-22, 2024: https://ageit.eu/wp/convegno-venezia-2024/

2023
Co-organizer of the Scientific Meeting: "The Demography of Ageing State-of-the-Art and Challenges", Florence, Italy.
Workshop held under the auspices of PNRR ”AGE-IT” Research Program - Spoke 1, University of Florence, Florence.
https://ageit.eu/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Programma-Spoke-1-14-settembre-2023-1.pdf

2022
Organizer of the Round Table for the UNIGE Data Science Day 2022, UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland.

2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
Organizer of the MaBAn Speed Recruitment Meeting event at GSEM, Geneva, Switzerland.

2016
Co-organizer, Satellite Conference for “IARC’s 50th Anniversary” at IARC, Lyon, France.

2015
Organizer, Event for “World Statistics Day” at Campus Irchel, UZH, Zurich, Switzerland.

Teaching 

PhD Course

Fall 2020 Applied Statistical Regression Modelling for Biologists Using R,
course for PhD students from the ’Interuniversity Doctoral Program in Organismal Biology’,
Université de Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Research Interests

• Additive Bayesian Networks and Bayesian Hierarchical Models
• Advanced Regression Techniques, with a focus on Quantile Regression
• Development and evaluation of Varying-Threshold Models
• Time Series Forecasting: ETS and ARIMA models
• Statistical methodologies for social and demographic research (e.g., pseudo-panel analysis)
• Population estimation and forecasting methods
• Statistical approaches to ageing studies, with emphasis on kinlessness
• Mathematical Epidemiological Models, for studying disease dynamics and public health interventions

Ongoing scientific collaborations and research projects

PNRR: AGE-IT
Affilliated Fellow and Member in the PNRR project: PE8 - AGE-IT: A Novel Public-Private Alliance
To Generate Socioeconomic, Biomedical And Technological Solutions For An Inclusive Italian
Ageing Society. Spoke 1 and Spoke 6: in collaboration with the University of Florence and
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. (2023 - ongoing).

Taxation and Philanthropy
Regressions models for tax and philanthropic data: 
https://www.unige.ch/philanthropie/en/research-publication/research/philanthropyand-taxation.
In collaboration with Prof. Henry Peter and Dr. Giedre Lideikyte-Huber, from the Geneva Center for Philanthropy:
https://www.unige.ch/philanthropie/en/centre/researchteam/team. (2019 - ongoing).

m-Health Method
Project on the personalization of Mobile Apps for Health Behavior Change.
In collaboration with the HUG, Hospital of the University of Geneva, Geneva. (2021-2022).

One Health Approach 
First One Health Approach to Snakebite in Nepal: SNAKE-BYTE project: 
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/176271. In collaboration with the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine,
Institute of Global Health, Prof. Nicolas Ray and François Chappuis: 
https://www.unige.ch/medecine/isg/en/research/one-health-unit/research-summary/. (2020-2022)

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Indirect probes of Lyman continuum escape from galaxies.
In collaboration with the UNIGE Faculty of Science, Prof. Anne Verhamme:
https://data.snf.ch/grants/grant/176808. (2020-2022).

Data Science For All
UNIGE pedagogical and statistical projects. Videos filming to explain statistical techniques, 
in a simple divulgative way: https://datascience.unige.ch/forall/videos. 

WCRF
Member for the Post-Doctoral Scientist topic, of the World Cancer Research Funds
(WCRF International) study (Grant IARC-2012-10-10-03) on "Integrated approach
for dietary exposure and biomarker measurements in aetiological models". (2016-ongoing).

SNSF
Member for the PhD Project funded by the SNSF - Swiss National Science Foundation 
(Grant SNSF-138562) on ”Developing Bayesian Networks as a tool for Zoonotic Systems Epidemiology”. https://app.dimensions.ai/details/grant/grant.5234316. (2012-2015).

Scientific collaborations and research projects with responsibilities

Escape Game Learning 
PI for the development of online "Escape Game Rooms" as a summative assessment tool for course evaluation.
The Genially Academy software, https://academy.genial.ly, is used for the implementation.
Research projects in collaboration with the Master student Anastasia Floru:
https://www.unige.ch/innovations-pedagogiques/innovations/escape-game

P3 project
Statistics as a tool for the well-being of animal experimentation:
https://www.unige.ch/p3/appel-projet/accueil-projets/2022/140
Co-PI, in collaboration with Daniele Roppolo, Director of the UNIGE Rectorate Animal Experimentation: https://www.unige.ch/recherche/expanim/contact/contact.

Seminars and Conferences

Invited talks

2025
CMStatistics 2025, Computational and Methodological Statistics, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
Workshop KINHEALTH, Padova, Italy.
Workshop AGE-IT 2025, Department of Economics, Campus Economico San Giobbe, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy.

2024
Brown Bag Meeting, Seminar for the AGRIFOOD - MANAGEMENT AND INNOVATION LAB, Venice School of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy.
La Scienza al NUoVO, Divulgative Scientific Seminar at the NUoVO: III Mission to promote science among citizens, Cuneo Italy.
ISBA Satellite Conference, Satellite workshop to International Society for Bayesian Analysis (ISBA) world meeting, SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland.
Statistics Seminars, STatistics REsearch: Applications and Methods (STREAM) Statistics Seminars, UNIVE, Venice, Italy.

2023
CMStatistics 2023, Computational and Methodological Statistics, HTW Berlin, University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany.
Workshop for the PNRR AGE-IT Research Program - Spoke 1: "The Demography of Ageing State-of-the-Art and Challenges", UNIFI, Firenze, Italy.
UPS Seminar, Population and Society Unit (UPS), Department of Statistics, Computer Science, ApplicatiOns "G. Parenti" (DISIA), UNIFI, Firenze, Italy.
DISIA Welcome Seminar, DISIA, UNIFI, Firenze, Italy.
Data Science Tools 2023, Competence Center on Data Science (CCDS), Geneva, Switzerland.

2022
CMStatistics 2022, Computational and Methodological Statistics, King’s College London, London, UK.
Torino Seminar Series in "Stochastics and Mathematical Statistics", UNITO, Torino, Italy.
Conférence AGEFI Magazine Philanthropie, Geneva, Switzerland.
Welcome Home Workshop 2022, UNITO, Torino, Italy.
UNIGE Data Science Day 2022, UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland.
UNIGE Pedagogical Innovation Team Seminar 2022, UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland.
MIT Statistics Seminars Series, MIT, Boston, USA.

2021
CMStatistics 2021, Computational and Methodological Statistics, King’s College London, London, UK.
UNIGE Data Science Day 2021, UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland.

2020
Welcome Home Workshop 2020, UNITO, virtual workshop.
Taxation and Philanthropy Conference 2020, UNIGE, virtual conference.
Launch of the new Data Science Competence Center, UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland.

2018 Statistics seminars, Research Center for Statistics, UNIGE, Geneva, Switzerland.

2017
Welcome Home Workshop 2017, Round Table Leader, UNITO, Torino, Italy.
Statistics seminars, International Agency for Research on Cancer, IARC, Lyon, France.
Biostatistics seminars, I-Math Institute, UZH, Zurich, Switzerland.

2016 Probability seminars, Math Department, UNITO, Torino, Italy.
2014 VPHI Seminar, UNIBE, Bern, Switzerland.
2013 VPH Annual Conference 2013, UNIBE, Bern, Switzerland.
ZGSM Graduate Colloquium, UZH, Zurich, Switzerland.
2012 Welcome Home Workshop 2012, UNITO, Torino, Italy.
2011 Vth Biannual National Conference DI.FI.MA. 2011, UNITO, Torino, Italy.

Contributed talks at conferences

2025
RSS International Conference 2025, Edinburgh, UK.
Scientific Meeting of Italian Statistical Society, SIS 2025, Genova, Italy.
POPDAYS 2025, AISP Conference, Cagliari, Italy.

2024 Scientific Meeting of Italian Statistical Society, SIS 2024, Bari, Italy.

2023
Scientific Meeting Classification and Data Analysis Group, CLADAG 2023, Salerno, Italy.
Scientific Meeting of Italian Statistical Society, SIS 2023, Ancona, Italy.

2020 Computational and Methodological Statistics, CMStatistics 2020, King’s College London, virtual conference.
2019 Bayesian Biostatistics Lyon 2019, BAYES 2019, Lyon, France.
2018 Scientific Meeting of Italian Statistical Society, SIS 2018, Palermo, Italy.

2015
Joint Statistical Meeting 2015, JSM 2015, Seattle, USA.
Meeting of the International Biometric Society, IBS 2015, Milan, Italy.

2014
DACH Epidemiologietagung Tiergesundheit und Okonomie, Zurich, Switzerland.
27th International Biometric Conference, IBC 2014, Florence, Italy.

Poster presentations at conferences

2024 International Society for Bayesian Analysis, ISBA 2024, Venice, IT.

2018
Bayesian learning theory for complex data modelling, IFSS 2018, Grenoble, France.
International Society for Bayesian Analysis, ISBA 2018, Edinburgh, UK.
2016 International Conference for IARC’s 50th Anniversary, Lyon, France.
2014 Bayesian Biostatistics 2014, BB 2014, UZH, Switzerland.

Computational skills

Softwares: R, Statistica, SAS, JAGS, WinBUGS (Unix and Windows), Stata, Mathematica, MATLAB.
R package abn: an R package for data modelling with additive Bayesian networks.
Contributor and Former Maintainer. Available from the Comprehensive R Archive Network, CRAN.
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/abn/index.html

Languages

Italian:  Mother tongue
English: Fluent
French: Fluent
German: Basic