From teaching college-level statistics to working as a data scientist at Microsoft, our newest alumni are off to some exciting new opportunities in the coming year.
Kelsey Grinde, PhD
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![Kelsey Grinde](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/kelsey-grinde_250x250.jpg?itok=VoXwxJ8_)
- Future Plans: I will be starting a position this fall as a statistics teaching post-doc in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
- Dissertation: “Statistical inference in admixed populations”
- Advisor: Sharon Browning
- Recipient of the 2019 Thomas R. Fleming Excellence in Biostatistics Award
Arjun Sondhi, PhD
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![Arjun Sondhi](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/arjun-sondhi_250x250.jpg?itok=pQyVw8K6)
- Future Plans: Quantitative Scientist, Flatiron Health
- Dissertation: “Statistical miscellany: causality, networks, and bandits”
- Advisor: Ali Shojaie
Phuong Vu, PhD
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![Phuong Vu](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/phuong-vu_250x250.jpg?itok=OhSozrqi)
- Future Plans: Biostatistician at Seattle Children’s Research Institute
- Dissertation: “Dimension reduction for spatially-misaligned and multi-pollutant data with missing observations”
- Advisor: Adam Szpiro
- Recipient of the 2019 SPH Outstanding PhD Student Award
Brian Williamson, PhD
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![Brian Williamson](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/brian-williamson_250x250.jpg?itok=d3S3ArUI)
- Future Plans: Postdoctoral fellow, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center with Dr. Ying Huang
- Dissertation: “A unified approach to nonparametric variable importance assessment using flexible estimation procedures”
- Advisors: Marco Carone, Noah Simon
- Recipient of the 2019 Exceptional Service in Biostatistics Award
Alexander Paynter, MS
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![Alex Paynter](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-01/alex_250.jpg?itok=qebESyxR)
- Future Plans: Biostatistician, Seattle Children's Research Institute
- Thesis: “Tuning parameter selection for a penalized maximum likelihood estimator of species richness”
- Advisor: Amy Willis
- Recipient of the 2019 SPH Outstanding MS Student Award
Anqi Cheng, PhD
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![Anqi Chen](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/anqi-chen_250x250.jpg?itok=6OsBYy5n)
- Future Plans: I'm going to work at Microsoft as a Data Scientist.
- Dissertation: “Nonparametric and semiparametric estimation of distributional causal effect using instrumental variables”
- Advisor: Gary Chan
Anu Mishra, PhD
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![Anu Mishra](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/anu-mishra_250x250.jpg?itok=QaBomgcl)
- Future Plans: Statistical Consultant, UNICEF
- Advisors: Kathleen Kerr, Lurdes Inoue
Yuxiang Xie, PhD
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![Yuxiang Xie](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/yuxiang_250x250.jpg?itok=-WrSA39U)
- Future Plans: Data Scientist at Snap Inc.
- Dissertation: “Statistical methods for sparse binary, count data and treatment effect heterogeneity”
- Advisor: Gary Chan
Weija Fu, MS
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![Weija Fu](/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/2020-06/weijia-fu_250x250.jpg?itok=9HAt0iBd)
- Future Plans: Research Assistant, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
- Thesis: "Statistical Issues in Microbiome Data Analysis: Batch Effects and Multi-Omics Analysis"
- Advisor: Michael Wu