Anthony Pawlak is a research analyst and statistician for the behavioral and psychophysiology laboratory of Dr. Marsha E. Bates at the Center of Alcohol and Substance Use Studies (CAS) at Rutgers University. He graduated cum laude from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA with a BA in psychology. Dr. Pawlak received a MS in Psychology (Biopsychology & Behavioral Neuroscience Program) at Rutgers University with a project that involved the electrophysiological recording of single neuronal units in the basal ganglia in a rodent behavioral pharmacology paradigm that investigated the psychomotoric effects of cocaine on behavior. For this study, he developed an innovative application of multilevel statistical modeling to disentangle the effects of the average firing rates of neurons observed across the study versus the firing rates present during individual movement trials. Dr. Pawlak received his PhD in Education (Concentration in Applied Statistics & Psychometrics) with a dissertation project that focused on utilizing item response theory (IRT) to assess the individual criteria of the DSM-IV diagnostic category for a major depressive episode.
As part of his current position, Dr. Pawlak performs statistical and psychometric analyses, data management, and research design consulting at the CAS. He also assists in the reporting of the methodology and results of statistical analyses for peer-reviewed publications. His statistical and methodological interests include structural equation modeling, latent class analysis, multivariate analyses, and linear mixed models.