Zachary Binney
Assistant Professor of Quantitative Theory and Methods
Zach Binney joined Oxford College in August 2020 as an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Theory and Methods. He's an Atlanta native, born and raised. He left for four years to earn his undergraduate degree in the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine from the University of Chicago in 2008, but he returned every summer to work as an editor for the CNN Radio network. He then spent 3 years in Washington, D.C. as a healthcare consultant before returning to Atlanta to earn his MPH in epidemiology from Emory in 2013. After a year of research work at the Emory Palliative Care Center he moved back across the quad to earn his PhD in epidemiology at Emory in 2018. His dissertation was on NFL injuries.
Dr. Binney has taught multiple courses in epidemiologic and statistical methods to students from freshmen undergraduates through PhD students at Emory and Georgia State Universities. His research currently sits at the intersection of sports and public health, focusing on sports injuries and athlete health. He has previously worked in palliative and end-of-life care and collaborated on projects related to infectious diseases. He has consulted for sports organizations (including NFL, MLB, NBA, and NCAA Division I teams), pharmaceutical companies, and media groups on statistical and analytical issues. He is also a staff writer at Football Outsiders and enjoys working with journalists to communicate accessibly about epidemiology and statistics to the public.
You can find him on Twitter @binney_z.
Education
AB| University of Chicago| 2008
MPH| Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University| 2013
PhD| Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University| 2018
Courses Taught
QTM 110: Introduction to Scientific Methods
QTM 150: Introduction to Statistical Computing I (R)
Discovery Seminar - Playing on Spreadsheets: Statistics in Sports
Accomplishments
2022 Guy G. Simoneau Research Excellence Award, Journal of Opthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy
Publications
Smoliga J.M, Binney Z.O. What factors influence concussion risk in American football? Bayesian analysis of 8 seasons of National Football League data. Epidemiology. 2023. In press. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.29.22270096v1
Shanmugam A.**; Binney Z.O., Shanmugam A.**; Binney Z.O., Voyles C.B., Bouldin E., Raol N.P. “A Retrospective Evaluation on the Effect of Pediatric OSA Treatment Success on Clinical Measures of Hypertension and Obesity in Comorbid Patients.” Sleep Medicine. 2023. 101: 205-212.
Binney Z.O., Smoliga J.S. Bad Altitude: Categorizing Elevation Produces Spurious Association With Concussions in the National Football League (NFL). Journal of Orthopedic and Sports Physical Therapy. 2022. 52(10): 694-701.
Binney Z.O.*, Nelson K.N.*, Chamberlain A.T. Excess Pneumonia Mortality During a Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak in Flint, Michigan. Epidemiology. Accepted for publication.
Binney Z.O. and Bachynski K.E. Estimating the prevalence at death of CTE neuropathology among professional football players. Neurology. 2019. 92(1): 43-45
Merchant, F.M., Binney Z.O., Patel A., Li J., Peddareddy L.P., El-Chami M.F., Leon A.R., Quest T.E. Prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of advance directives in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator recipients. Heart Rhythm. 2017. 14(6): 830-6.
Grandhige A.P., Binney Z.O., Quest T.E. Respiratory Therapists’ Experiences and Attitudes Regarding Terminal Extubations and End-of-Life Care. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2016. 61(7): 891-6.
Butler J.B., Binney Z.O., Kalogeropoulos A., Owen M., Clevenger C.K., Gunter D., Georgiopoulou V., Quest T.E. Advance Directives among Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients. JACC Heart Failure. 2015. 3(2): 112-21.
Binney, Z.O., Majesko, A.A., Feingold, P.L., Buchman, T.G., and Quest, T.E. Feasibility and Economic Impact of Dedicated Hospice Inpatient Units for Terminally Ill ICU Patients. Critical Care Medicine. 2014. 42(5): 1074-80.
*Denotes co-first authors
**Denotes Oxford student
Presentations
Binney Z.O., Yurko R.J. Multilevel Models to Measure Player, Team, and Stadium
Effects on NFL Injury Risk. Oral presentation at 2018 Cascadia Symposium on Statistics in Sports. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Binney Z.O., Hammond K.E., Klein M., Goodman M.C., Janssens A.C.J.W. Assessing the Impact of Practice Restrictions on Injury Rates in the National Football League (NFL). Combined oral + poster presentation at 2018 Joint Statistical Meetings. Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Binney Z.O., Janssens A.C.J.W., Klein M., Goodman M.C., Hammond K.E. Using Survival Analysis to Estimate Injury Resolution Times and Positional Variation in the NFL. Poster presentation at 2017 New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports. Cambridge, MA.
Research Interests
Epidemiology, sports injuries, athlete health, sports analytics and statistics, teaching methods, palliative and end-of-life care