# Susan Assmann

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**Susan Fera Assmann** (June 26, 1956 – May 30, 2020) was an American mathematician and statistician. Her research in mathematics included work on the [bin covering problem](/source/Bin_covering_problem) (a [discrete optimization](/source/Discrete_optimization) problem), while her later work in statistics and biostatistics included work on [subgroup analysis](/source/Subgroup_analysis) and on the use of [spironolactone](/source/Spironolactone) for treating heart failure.

## Early life, education, and career

Assmann is originally from [Princeton, New Jersey](/source/Princeton,_New_Jersey), where she was born on June 26, 1956.[1] Her father, Frederick Fera Assmann (1915–2004) was a chemical engineer for the US Army and Thiokol Chemical Corporation;[1][2] her mother, Mary Assmann (died 2010), was a science teacher at [The Pennington School](/source/The_Pennington_School).[3] In her doctoral dissertation, Susan Assmann writes that her interest in mathematics "was sparked by the 'interesting test' which constituted part of the application for entrance to the [Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics](/source/Hampshire_College_Summer_Studies_in_Mathematics) program", a summer program for high school mathematics students.[4]

She was the 1974 valedictorian at [Hopewell Valley Central High School](/source/Hopewell_Valley_Central_High_School) in [Pennington, New Jersey](/source/Pennington,_New_Jersey),[1][4] and a 1978 [summa cum laude](/source/Summa_cum_laude) graduate of [Dartmouth College](/source/Dartmouth_College).[1][5] She completed a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1983 at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](/source/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology), with the dissertation *Problems in Discrete and Applied Mathematics* supervised by [Daniel Kleitman](/source/Daniel_Kleitman).[4][6] Through her joint publications with Kleitman on problems including the [bin covering problem](/source/Bin_covering_problem), she has [Erdős number](/source/Erd%C5%91s_number) 2.[5][1][7]

After continuing in academia as a mathematics professor at the [University of Massachusetts Lowell](/source/University_of_Massachusetts_Lowell) and [Regis College](/source/Regis_College_(Massachusetts)), Assmann came to work for the New England Research Institute (later known as HealthCore), where she continued as a principal statistician for nearly 26 years. Supporting the corresponding shift in her research interests, she received a master's degree in [biostatistics](/source/Biostatistics) from the School of Public Health & Health Sciences at the [University of Massachusetts Amherst](/source/University_of_Massachusetts_Amherst) in 1994.[1][5]

## Personal life

Assmann married Jeffrey Del Papa, a private equity manager. Her interests included [change ringing](/source/Change_ringing) and early [harpsichord](/source/Harpsichord) music.[1][5]

Assmann died of cancer on May 30, 2020.[1][5]

## Selected publications

- Assmann, S. F.; Peck, G. W.; Sysło, M. M.; Zak, J. (1981), "The bandwidth of caterpillars with hairs of length 1 and 2", *SIAM Journal on Algebraic and Discrete Methods*. **2** (4): 387–393, [doi:10.1137/0602041](https://doi.org/10.1137/0602041). MR 634362
- Assmann, S. F.; Johnson, D. S.; Kleitman, D. J.; Leung, J.Y.-T. (December 1984), "On a dual version of the one-dimensional bin packing problem", *Journal of Algorithms*. **5** (4): 502–525, [doi:10.1016/0196-6774(84)90004-x](https://doi.org/10.1016/0196-6774(84)90004-x)
- Assmann, Susan F.; Hosmer, David W.; Lemeshow, Stanley; Mundt, Kenneth A. (May 1996), ["Confidence intervals for measures of interaction"](https://journals.lww.com/epidem/abstract/1996/05000/confidence_intervals_for_measures_of_interaction.14.aspx), *Epidemiology*. **7** (3): 286–290, [doi:10.1097/00001648-199605000-00012](https://doi.org/10.1097/00001648-199605000-00012). [JSTOR 3702864](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3702864). [PMID 8728443](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8728443)
- Assmann, Susan F.; Pocock, Stuart J.; Enos, Laura E.; Kasten, Linda E. (March 2000), "Subgroup analysis and other (mis)uses of baseline data in clinical trials", *The Lancet*. **355** (9209): 1064–1069, [doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(00)02039-0](https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(00)02039-0). [PMID 10744093](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10744093)
- Pitt, Bertram; Pfeffer, Marc A.; Assmann, Susan F.; Boineau, Robin; Anand, Inder S.; Claggett, Brian; Clausell, Nadine; Desai, Akshay S.; Diaz, Rafael; Fleg, Jerome L.; Gordeev, Ivan; Harty, Brian; Heitner, John F.; Kenwood, Christopher T.; Lewis, Eldrin F.; O'Meara, Eileen; Probstfield, Jeffrey L.; Shaburishvili, Tamaz; Shah, Sanjiv J.; Solomon, Scott D.; Sweitzer, Nancy K.; Yang, Song; McKinlay, Sonja M. (April 2014), "Spironolactone for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction", *New England Journal of Medicine*. **370** (15): 1383–1392, Massachusetts Medical Society, [doi:10.1056/nejmoa1313731](https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa1313731). [PMID 24716680](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24716680)

## References

1. ["Assman, Susan Fera"](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/susan-assmann-obituary?id=2253370), *Boston Globe*, June 11, 2020, retrieved 2025-03-21, – via Legacy.com

1. ["Frederick F. Assmann Obituary"](https://www.saulfuneralhomes.com/obituaries/Frederick-F-Assmann?obId=7445096), Saul Funeral Homes, June 2004, retrieved 2025-03-22

1. ["Mary E. Assmann"](https://obits.nj.com/us/obituaries/trenton/name/mary-assmann-obituary?id=25289766), *The Times of Trenton*, January 5, 2010, retrieved 2025-03-21

1. Assmann, Susan Fera (1983), "Problems in discrete applied mathematics" (Ph.D. thesis), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [hdl:1721.1/121905](https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121905); see biographical note, p. 125

1. ["In memoriam: Susan Fera Assmann"](https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/awm-news-novdec-2020-print.pdf), *AWM Newsletter*. **50** (6): 24, November–December 2020, – via American Statistical Association

1. ["Erdos2"](https://sites.google.com/oakland.edu/grossman/home/the-erdoes-number-project/the-erdoes-number-project-data-files/erdos2), *Erdős number project*, retrieved 2025-03-21

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