Younes Boulaguiem, PhD
Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

Postdoctoral Researcher in Statistics

“In God we trust. All others must bring data.”
— W. Edwards Deming

I am currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Unité d’appui méthodologique of the Clinical Research Center at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) led by Prof. Christophe Combescure, where I focus on advanced statistical methodologies for meta-analyses. In parallel, I collaborate with Prof. Panteleimon Giannakopoulos, General director of the Cantonal Health Office (OCS) and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Geneva, on research using Machine/Statistical learning approaches to identify early predictors of Alzheimer’s disease.

I hold a PhD in Statistics from the University of Geneva (co-advisors: Prof. Maria-Pia Victoria-Feser and Prof. Stéphane Guerrier), where I developed new methods for bioequivalence testing, designed a generative AI model for spatial extremes, and contributed to simulation-based privacy-preserving inference techniques. I also completed a research internship at Roche in Basel, applying latent variable models to improve disability progression endpoints in neuroinflammatory diseases.

Overall, my work bridges statistical innovation and practical impact, with over seven publications, ten talks, and open-source tools that foster reproducible and collaborative research in statistics and machine learning.

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Experience

  1. Postdoctoral Researcher in Statistics

    Clinical Research Center, HUG
    • Meta-analytic methods for evidence synthesis.
    • Machine/Statistical learning to predict Alzheimer’s risk.
  2. Research Intern (Product Development Clinical Science)

    Roche
    • Item Response Theory (IRT) modeling for disability endpoints in neurology.
    • Data curation for ongoing trials.
  3. Research Fellow in Statistics

    University of Geneva
    • Developed novel bioequivalence testing methods, published in Statistics in Medicine (two first-author papers, here and here), implemented in the cTOST R package.
    • Created evtGAN, a generative AI model for spatial extremes (first-author in Environmental Data Science). Open-source material available in Zenodo.
    • Designed simulation-based inference methods under differential privacy (view pre-print).
    • Contributed to 7+ publications, 10+ talks, and R Shiny dashboards for complex drug data visualization.
  4. Teaching Assistant

    University of Geneva
    • Led tutorials, lectures and supervised master theses for undergraduate and graduate courses in Statistics, Probability, and Mathematics.
    • Created interactive e-book and a private YouTube channel for R tutorials for the course Mixed Linear Models.

Education

  1. PhD in Statistics

    University of Geneva

    Research included:

    • Bioequivalence.
    • Simulation-based Inference.
    • Differential Privacy.
    • Generative AI & Computer Vision.
    • Extreme Value Theory.
    • Pharmaceutics.
    View Presentation
  2. MSc in Statistics

    University of Geneva

    Thesis: Learning Max-stable Distributions with Generative Adversarial Networks. Advisor: Prof. Sebastian Engelke.

    Grade: 5.5/6

  3. BSc in Economics

    HEC Lausanne
Publications
(2025). Bioequivalence Assessment for Locally Acting Drugs: A Framework for Feasible and Efficient Evaluation. arXiv.
(2025). Fiducial Matching: Differentially Private Inference for Categorical Data. arXiv.
(2025). Multivariate Adjustments for Average Equivalence Testing. Statistics in Medicine.
(2024). Patient-Perceived Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medication Adherence and Access to Care for Long-Term Diseases: A Cross-Sectional Online Survey. COVID.
(2023). Finite sample corrections for average equivalence testing. Statistics in Medicine.
(2023). Influence of Molecular Structure and Physicochemical Properties of Immunosuppressive Drugs on Micelle Formulation Characteristics and Cutaneous Delivery. Pharmaceutics.
(2022). Faultlines within Sectors in Partnership Executive Boards. Book chapter.
(2022). Modeling and Simulating Spatial Extremes by Combining Extreme Value Theory with Generative Adversarial Networks. Environmental Data Science.
(2021). Polymeric Micelle Formulations for the Cutaneous Delivery of Sirolimus: A New Approach for Treating Facial Angiofibromas in Tuberous Sclerosis Complex. Int. J. Pharm..
DOI
Talks

How to Detect Questionable Research Practices in Clinical Trial Protocols

An 8min overview of QRPs, why they matter, and what they look like in a real clinical trial protocol.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

Contributions to Equivalence Testing

This talk presents improved finite-sample corrections for equivalence testing, offering better calibration and power than standard methods.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

Modeling Disability Progression in Multiple Sclerosis Using Item Response Theory

A short overview of why the EDSS is limited and how Item Response Theory might provide a more sensitive approach to modeling disability progression in MS.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

A Simulation-Based Approach to Differential Privacy

An introduction to DP-JIMI, a simulation-based approach to inference under differential privacy.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

A 15min Introduction to Differential Privacy

A quick, example-driven overview of differential privacy and how mechanisms like Laplace noise provide strong privacy guarantees with useful accuracy.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

A 15min introduction to Edgeworth Expansions

A concise introduction to Edgeworth expansions and how they refine asymptotic approximations in statistics.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

Learning Extremes with evtGAN

A hybrid framework combining extreme value theory with GANs to learn and simulate high-dimensional spatial extremes.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD

A 15min introduction to GANs

A concise introduction to how GANs learn data distributions through adversarial training and why they’re powerful yet hard to train.

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Younes Boulaguiem, PhD
Open Source



cTOST R package
CRAN ∙ February 2025
The cTOST R package implements a set of finite-sample corrective procedures that improve the power and accuracy of the widely used Two One-Sided Tests (TOST) method in bioequivalence and clinical research. Developed as part of our Statistics in Medicine (2024) publication, the package provides practical tools that address TOST’s known conservativeness, offering more reliable equivalence conclusions, in particular for highly variable drugs. The accompanying website includes methodological details, examples, and guidance for applying the cTOST procedures in practice.

Explore package →



evtGAN
Zenodo ∙ October 2021

evtGAN is a lightweight emulator that combines extreme value theory (EVT) with generative adversarial networks (GANs) to model rare compound events with far greater accuracy than traditional tools. Climate models are computationally costly, EVT alone struggles with complex spatial dependence, and standard machine-learning models typically fail in the extreme tail. evtGAN overcomes these limitations by separating marginal behavior from dependence using a copula-based framework: EVT provides theoretically sound marginal modeling and tail extrapolation, while GANs flexibly learn spatial dependence patterns. With strong performance even from as few as 30 annual maxima, evtGAN offers scientists an efficient, ready-to-use solution for simulating extremes. The Zenodo repository provides 2'000 years of simulated annual temperature and precipitation maxima over Western Europe, along with R and Python (TensorFlow) code to reproduce the method from our Environmental Data Science (2022) publication.

Explore code & data →

Contact

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