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Position Title/Affiliation
Postdoctoral trainee
Position Being Sought 2023
j-ISBA Secretary
Candidate Statement 2023
I believe that collaboration between junior researchers is the key to building a strong and productive community of Bayesian statisticians. As Secretary for j-ISBA, I would work hard to develop tools that foster such academic collaboration and idea exchange.
Although I have not previously served on the board of a professional society, I have a track record of institutional service in other domains. I recently completed my PhD at Duke University's Department of Statistical Science (DSS) under the supervision of Professor Peter Hoff. Currently, I am a postdoctoral trainee in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill working with Professors Didong Li and Haibo Zhou. During my PhD, I served two year-long terms on the Graduate Consultative Committee (GCC) for the DSS. This was a voluntary position, which involved communicating students’ concerns to faculty and vice versa, organizing activities for prospective students, and planning several social events throughout the academic year. When I worked at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, I served as the Vice Chair of a committee devoted to reforming the management and configuration of laboratory and office workspaces. In college, I co-founded and co-led the Stanford Jazz Consortium, and when I was a high school student I organized two jazz festivals, which involved communication with local musicians and directors of jazz programs. In summary, I have experience going above and beyond the expected duties of an employee and student. I also have experience planning events and advertising them. Perhaps most importantly, I have experience communicating and coordinating with large groups and leadership teams.
If I am elected, I would apply these organizational skills to developing a program for collaborative research among j-ISBA members from different institutions. An example program I have in mind, which lies somewhere between a final class project and a Kaggle competition, would consist of: 1. An announcement of three statistical problems and a solicitation for three corresponding teams of j-ISBA members to come together to solve them over the course of a calendar year. 2. A webpage and other infrastructure (e.g. GitHub, Slack) to act as a hub for team members to access the problem statements and/or datasets and to communicate with one another. 3. A specific endpoint and deliverable at the conclusion of the year. For instance, teams might present their results at an ISBA conference session, webinar, or some other forum. Teams might even publish a write-up of their work, though this would not be required.
If this type of collaborative research effort sounds like something you would like to be a part of, please feel free to contact me with your ideas. With the right balance of incentives, I believe it could be a fantastic means of sustaining professional and personal relationships among j-ISBA members in the interim between ISBA meetings. I believe that it could lead to some excellent statistical work as well.
I hope you’ll consider voting for me as j-ISBA Secretary.
Although I have not previously served on the board of a professional society, I have a track record of institutional service in other domains. I recently completed my PhD at Duke University's Department of Statistical Science (DSS) under the supervision of Professor Peter Hoff. Currently, I am a postdoctoral trainee in the Department of Biostatistics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill working with Professors Didong Li and Haibo Zhou. During my PhD, I served two year-long terms on the Graduate Consultative Committee (GCC) for the DSS. This was a voluntary position, which involved communicating students’ concerns to faculty and vice versa, organizing activities for prospective students, and planning several social events throughout the academic year. When I worked at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, I served as the Vice Chair of a committee devoted to reforming the management and configuration of laboratory and office workspaces. In college, I co-founded and co-led the Stanford Jazz Consortium, and when I was a high school student I organized two jazz festivals, which involved communication with local musicians and directors of jazz programs. In summary, I have experience going above and beyond the expected duties of an employee and student. I also have experience planning events and advertising them. Perhaps most importantly, I have experience communicating and coordinating with large groups and leadership teams.
If I am elected, I would apply these organizational skills to developing a program for collaborative research among j-ISBA members from different institutions. An example program I have in mind, which lies somewhere between a final class project and a Kaggle competition, would consist of: 1. An announcement of three statistical problems and a solicitation for three corresponding teams of j-ISBA members to come together to solve them over the course of a calendar year. 2. A webpage and other infrastructure (e.g. GitHub, Slack) to act as a hub for team members to access the problem statements and/or datasets and to communicate with one another. 3. A specific endpoint and deliverable at the conclusion of the year. For instance, teams might present their results at an ISBA conference session, webinar, or some other forum. Teams might even publish a write-up of their work, though this would not be required.
If this type of collaborative research effort sounds like something you would like to be a part of, please feel free to contact me with your ideas. With the right balance of incentives, I believe it could be a fantastic means of sustaining professional and personal relationships among j-ISBA members in the interim between ISBA meetings. I believe that it could lead to some excellent statistical work as well.
I hope you’ll consider voting for me as j-ISBA Secretary.
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