Rate My Professor Robert Platt

Robert Platt is Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health at McGill University, where he joined the faculty in 1996 as Assistant Professor, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Full Professor in 2011. He holds the Albert Boehringer I Chair in Pharmacoepidemiology since 2016 and currently serves as Director of the School of Population and Global Health and Associate Dean (Population and Global Health) in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, positions effective September 2025. Previously, he acted as Interim Chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Occupational Health from 2020 to 2021 and Interim Director of the School from April to September 2019. Platt is a Senior Investigator at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and the Lady Davis Institute, and Principal Investigator of the Canadian Network for Observational Drug Effect Studies (CNODES), roles he has held since leading its Methods Team in 2011 and becoming co-Principal Investigator in 2016. His academic background includes a B.Sc. in Mathematics from McGill University in 1990, an M.Sc. in Statistics from the University of Manitoba in 1993, and an M.Sc. in Biostatistics in 1995 and Ph.D. in Biostatistics in 1996 from the University of Washington.

Platt's research focuses on biostatistics and statistical methods for pharmacoepidemiology and perinatal epidemiology, emphasizing causal inference in observational studies using administrative data, particularly for medications in pregnancy. He has published nearly 500 peer-reviewed articles, co-edited the book 'Reproductive and Perinatal Epidemiology' (Oxford University Press, 2010), and an upcoming volume 'Comparative Effectiveness and Personalized Medicine Research Using Real-World Data' (Taylor and Francis, 2026). Key publications include 'A new and improved population-based reference for birth weight for gestational age' (Pediatrics, 2001, with M.S. Kramer et al.) and contributions to Canadian fetal growth references. Among his honors are multiple Chercheur-Boursier awards from the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Santé (1999-2016), Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2016), and election as Fellow of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology and the American Statistical Association (both 2023). Platt has supervised over 60 trainees, delivered more than 120 invited presentations, and holds editorial roles as Editor-in-Chief of Statistics in Medicine since 2019, Editor of the American Journal of Epidemiology since 2018, and past President of the Statistical Society of Canada (2018-2019) and the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research (2012-2013).