Charles Wolock, PhD

Assistant Professor
Ph.D. (2023) University of Washington

Contact Information

University of Rochester
Dept of Biostatistics and Computational Biology
265 Crittenden Boulevard, CU 420630
Rochester, New York 14642-0630

Office: Saunders Research Building 4.133
E-mail: charles_wolock@urmc.rochester.edu

Research Interests

My research is focused on nonparametric and semiparametric statistics, machine learning, and survival analysis, with the aim of studying how flexible machine learning algorithms can be harnessed to provide reliable statistical inference in the biomedical sciences. I am especially interested in statistical epidemiology, causal inference, and methods for assessing variable importance. Prior and ongoing collaborative projects include work in mental health, infectious diseases, and genomic medicine.

Visit Dr. Wolock's Lab Website

Full List of Publications

My most recent and complete publication list can be found here.

Selected Publications

Statistical Methods

• Wolock CJ, Gilbert PB, Simon N, Carone M. (2024). A framework for leveraging machine learning tools to estimate personalized survival curves. Journal of Computational and Graphical Statistics 33(3): 1098-1108.
• Wolock CJ, Gilbert PB, Simon N, Carone M. (2025). Assessing variable importance in survival analysis using machine learning. Biometrika 112(2): asae061.
• Wolock CJ, Jacob S, Bennett JC, Elias-Warren A, O'Hanlon J, Kenny A, Jewell NP, Rotnitzky A, Cole SR, Weil AA, Chu HY, Carone M. (2025). Investigating symptom duration using current status data: a case study of post-acute COVID-19 syndrome. Epidemiology 36(5).  

Scientific Applications

• Wolock CJ, Stong N, Ma F, Nagasaki T, Lee W, Tsang SH, Kamalakaran S, Goldstein DB, Allikmets R. (2019). A case-control collapsing analysis identifies retinal dystrophy genes associated with ophthalmic disease in patients with no pathogenic ABCA4 mutations. Genetics in Medicine 21: 2336-2344.
• Cameron-Christie S, Wolock CJ, Groopman E, Petrovski S, Kamalakaran S, Povysil G, Zhang M, Fleckner J, March RE, Gelfman S, Marasa M, Li Y, Sanna-Cherchi S, Kiryluk K, Allen AS, Fellström B, Haefliger C, Platt A, Goldstein DB, Gharavi A. (2019). Exome-based rare-variant analyses in chronic kidney disease. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 30(6): 1109-1122.
• Wasser SK, Wolock CJ, Kuhner MK, Brown JE, Morris C, Horowitz R, Wong A, Fernandez CJ, Otiende MY, Hoareau Y, Kaliszewska ZA, Jeon E, Han KL, Weir BS. (2022). Elephant genotypes reveal the size and connectivity of transnational ivory traffickers. Nature Human Behaviour 6(3): 371-382.
• Bittleston, LS, Wolock CJ, Maeda J, Infante V, Ané JM, Pierce NE, Pringle A. (2023). Carnivorous Nepenthes Pitchers with Less Acidic Fluid House Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 89(7): e00812-23.
• Kennedy CJ, Kearns JC, Geraci JC, Gildea SM, Hwang IH, King AJ, Liu H, Luedtke A, Marx BP, Panini S, Petukhova MV, Sampson NA, Smoller JW, Wolock CJ, Zainal HN, Stein MB, Ursano RJ, Kessler RC. (2024). Predicting Suicides Among US Army Soldiers After Leaving Active Service. JAMA Psychiatry 81(12): 1215-1224.
• Wolock CJ, Williamson BD, Shortreed SM, Simon GE; Coleman KJ, Yeargans R, Ahmedani BK, Daida Y, Lynch FL, Rossom RC, Ziebell RA, Cruz M, Wellman RD, Coley RY. (2024). Importance of variables from different time frames for predicting self-harm using health system data. Journal of Biomedical Informatics 160: 104750.
• Frivold C, Cox SN, Starita L, Babu TM, Hoffman KL, Carone M, Lockwood CM, Kuntz JL, Mularski RA, Varga A, Han PD, Reed J, Piliper EA, Mohamed Bakhash SAK, Greninger AL, Clark E, Stone J, Grindstaff S, Boisvert CL, Yetz N, Lo NK, Hatchie TL, Marshall G, Wolock CJ, Feldstein LR, Weil AA, Englund JA, Naleway AL, Chu HY. (2025). Correlates of Risk of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Disease: A Prospective Cohort Study. To appear, Nature Communications.