“From my first day of orientation at Rollins, I felt very comfortable and welcomed by the faculty and staff in the Department of Biostatistics. The small number of students in the department facilitated the development of closer relationships not only among students, but also between students and faculty. In the middle of my first year at Rollins, I began working part-time as a statistician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Through my work at CDC, I developed a particular interest for specific areas of study. As a result of the broad range of courses offered at Rollins, I was able to choose classes that aligned with my personal and professional interests. I continued my job at CDC throughout my time at Rollins and began working full-time after graduation.

My primary responsibility as a statistician is to serve as statistical support for researchers throughout CDC, offering assistance relating to study design, data analysis, and the dissemination of results. In addition to performing the statistical analysis for many studies at CDC, I have had the unique opportunity to be an integral contributor to studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals. I believe I made the right choice for myself and my career by choosing to study Biostatistics at Rollins.”

“I joined the PhD program in Biostatistics at Emory in 2006, after earning my Bachelor of Science in statistics in China. During my five years at Rollins, I received the exact training I was looking for—a nice combination of method and applications. The curriculum provided well-rounded training in theory and methods, and the ample consulting opportunities prepared me for collaborations with biomedical researchers.

My time at Rollins was rewarding and enjoyable. The faculty, staff, and fellow students never hesitated to help me when I was seeking advice and support regarding research, internship applications, and job hunting.

I was fortunate to work as a research assistant with several other professors on agreement studies and clustered data. The problems we worked on were motivated by real-life studies and were practical and meaningful. In terms of the applications, I was involved in several interesting consulting projects at the Biostatistics Consulting Center and the medical school.

During my graduate studies, I gradually became convinced that a research-oriented position would be best suited for me. I have been an assistant professor of Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh since August 2011. The emphasis of this position is on research—both methodological and collaborative—and teaching. I find my new position challenging and exciting, and believe that my training at Emory has given me a solid foundation for my career.”

“Before joining the biostatistics program at Rollins, I was trained in economics, but I was not sure about my career in economics. I love my choice in biostatistics because it is strongly related to life science, drug development, and public health—it also includes beautiful statistical theories as well as numerous interesting and important applications.

I completed my dissertation with Dr. Michael Haber. With his unfailing support, we successfully published our papers on my dissertation in Statistics in Medicine

During my five years at Rollins, I didn’t just focus on course studies and thesis writing. I was involved heavily in consulting projects with the Biostatistics Consulting Center, a summer internship at Merck &Co., Inc., and a part-time job at CDC’s Immunization Safety. After graduation, I decided to work at CDC as a mathematical statistician, which has been extremely rewarding.

Now, I’m working at the Inorganic and Radiation Analytical Toxicology Branch in the Division of Laboratory Science at the CDC. As the only statistician in our branch, I’m serving on many different research projects. I even had the opportunity to apply my dissertation work about inter-observer agreement to assess the accuracy and precision of iodine measurements globally. I have also learned a lot about complex survey methodology. I was fully motivated by public health promotion, and I really recommend anyone such a career if it’s also your dream.”

“During my previous study experience, I became fascinated with the beauty of statistics, and realized the great importance of both medical information systems and public health surveillance systems. 

So, I enrolled in the public health informatics MPH program at Rollins, which provided me with an excellent platform for studying developments in biomedical and public health Informatics in the United States.

I have become familiar with statistical methods, database management, geographic Information systems, and bioinformatics, as well as architectures and standards of public health surveillance systems and electronic medical record systems. With professors’ recommendations, I got an opportunity to work as a summer intern at the CDC where I became aware of nationwide efforts to expand electronic medical record systems and health information exchange networks. This experience helped me clarify my career goal—to become an interlocutor for computer science, informatics, and statistics.

Currently, I am a PhD student in the intelligent system program at the University of Pittsburgh. I am also working as a graduate student researcher in the Real-Time Outbreak and Disease Surveillance laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Biomedical Informatics. My research interest is to develop statistical and computational tools to leverage existing electronic medical record systems for public health and clinical decision making, public health surveillance, health care quality improvement, and population health research.” 

I earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Lafayette College in 2006.  At that time, Lafayette offered only one probability and one statistics course.  Thus, while these two classes were among my favorites as an undergraduate, I quickly exhausted the options for statistical study and the rest of my undergraduate courses focused on pure mathematics. 

After a National Science Foundation Research Experience during the summer after my junior year, I concluded that I wanted to pursue a career in a more applied area of mathematics.  I realized that biostatistics would be a perfect field for me because it would allow me to combine my passion for statistics with my secondary interest in biology and medicine.  Since completing my PhD in biostatistics, I am convinced that this was the perfect field for me. 

During my time at Rollins, I found the faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics to be welcoming and supportive. The broad range of course offerings enabled me to explore my options and to focus my research interests. In addition, I was given the opportunity to teach several different courses. These collective experiences convinced me to pursue a career in academia that emphasized teaching.

Thus, after earning my PhD, I immediately began working as an assistant professor of statistics in the Mathematics and Computer Science Department at Ursinus College. I teach courses in biostatistics, mathematical statistics, probability, applied statistics, and statistical programming. I also advise students on applied research in biostatistics and have had numerous opportunities to become involved in collaborative research with both students and faculty from the biology department, psychology department, and neuroscience program. In particular, I am involved in studies of biodiversity, problem-solving strategies based on eye tracking, and the effects of oxidative stress on neurodegeneration. The summers offer a much-appreciated opportunity to reconnect with my own methodological research.