Newsletter 2013 - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Current Students Prospective Students Parents Business Community Faculty & Staff Alumni Skip to Content ? my CalPoly login Quick Links College of Science & Mathematics Statistics Department Home About Us Academics Faculty Prospective Students Giving Contact Us Search Home : Newsletter 2013 Stat Department Home Newsletter 2013 Faculty Advising Major Information Message from Department Chair Allan Rossman Minor Information I am proud to begin a term as chair of Cal Poly’s Statistics Department. We have a terrific group of students and faculty to work and study alongside. I want to thank my predecessor, Bob Smidt, and the others who have served in this role over the years — Jay Devore, Roxy Peck and Jim Daly — for paving the way and establishing such a delightful environment in which to teach, study and learn. Read more of Rossman's message Actuary Information Courses Tutoring Grad School Info Consulting Stat Club Newsletter In Memory Contact Us Featured Alumni Greg Ridgeway In January, Greg Ridgeway (B.S., Statistics, 1995) was named acting director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and development agency within the U.S. Department of Justice. The NIJ works to improve scientific understanding of crime and justice through studying areas such as which public policies deter crime or how to make DNA evidence faster and cheaper. Debbie Huang While still a student, Debbie Huang (B.S., Statistics, 2013) won two awards at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students held in San Jose, Calif., in November 2012. Students from all over the country made presentations in the areas of math, engineering and physics. Huang received a presentation award and one of only three interdisciplinary awards for her poster on the statistical analysis of cardiovascular disease in women. Read more about our featured alumni back to top Featured Faculty Proposed System Could Vaporize Asteroids That Threaten Earth Gary Hughes, along with UCSB profesor Phillip Lubin, has conceived DE-STAR (Directed Energy Solar Targeting of Asteroids and exploRation) as a realistic means of mitigating potential threats posed to the Earth by asteroids and comets. The proposed system is designed to harness some of the power of the sun and convert it into a massive phased array of laser beams that can destroy asteroids posing a potential threat to Earth. Read an interview with Hughes and Lubin in the Los Angeles Times http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/newsletter-0[1/2/2014 11:58:51 AM] Newsletter 2013 - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Read the scientific description of DE-STAR at photonics.com Congratulations Are in Order A number of statistics faculty members' recent achievements are worthy of note: In April, Andrew Schaffner and Heather Smith were recognized by President Armstrong for their 15 years of dedicated service to Cal Poly. Jeff Sklar took a sabbatical leave during fall 2013. Karen McGaughey was elected to the Academic Senate for 2013-15. back to top Alumni Survey As part of the department's efforts to revise the current curriculum, including incorporating more modern statistical methods, we will be seeking input from alumni. Melissa Bowler, a student working on her senior project, will be sending out an alumni survey in January as part of her senior project. Please keep a look out for the survey and respond. back to top Alumni Updates Statistics alumni are pursuing advanced degrees, analyzing retail and health data, and raising children all over the world. Find out what your classmates are up to. back to top Faculty Updates Statistics faculty members have had a busy year professionally and personally. Catch up with your favorite faculty members. back to top Emeritus and Former Faculty Emeritus and former faculty members are traveling the world while remaining academically active. Learn more about their activities. back to top Stat Club The Stat Club wanted to recognize Bob Smidt when he retired. After brainstorming, the members decided to start a Hall of Fame in the Stat Lab and make Smidt the inaugural member. Because most statistics majors spend quite a bit of time in the lab, the club thought a plaque honoring Smidt would be the best way for students to learn about his contributions to the department. As time goes on and more faculty members retire, the club hopes to add more plaques so that students always know the professors who have made the Cal Poly Statistics Department a great place to learn. The Stat Club is grateful to Smidt for being an excellent teacher and department chair over the years. Thank you! back to top WUSS (Western Users of SAS Software) WUSS is officially recognized as the SAS user group of the western region of the U.S. It is a nonprofit, educational organization that provides SAS system users with professional development opportunities and a forum to exchange ideas. Every year, Cal Poly sends approximately 15 students to this conference, many of whom earn academic scholarships to attend. http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/newsletter-0[1/2/2014 11:58:51 AM] Newsletter 2013 - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Read more about WUSS back to top Scholarship Recipients for the 2013-14 Academic Year Scholarship for the Advancement of Science and Technology: Rachel Free and Julia Schedler The Scholarship for the Advancement of Science and Technology award is given to a sophomore, junior or senior with a minimum GPA of 3.0. Applicants must write a one-page document with a brief personal statement and an explanation of why they chose to major in statistics and what they believe the role of statistics is in science and technology. Read Julia Schedler’s winning document (doc) Joyce Curry -Daly and James Daly Memorial Scholarship: Rachel Free, Logan Tonder and Robin Tu The scholarship named in recognition of Joyce Curry-Daly and James Daly, seminal members of the Statistics Department, is used to support the long-term academic pursuits of worthy statistics majors. Read more about the Joyce Curry-Daly and James Daly Scholarship back to top Thank You to Our Generous Donors We want to thank our generous donors for their continued support of the department. Private support from our alumni, parents and friends helps the Statistics Department continue to provide an exceptional Learn by Doing education for today's students. View the 2012-13 donors back to top CP Home Directory Get Adobe Reader Campus Maps & Directions Bookstore Microsoft Viewers http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/newsletter-0[1/2/2014 11:58:51 AM] Calendar Employment Campus Policies Contact Us © 2014 California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, California 93407 Phone: 805-756-1111 Message from Department Chair Allan Rossman - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Current Students Prospective Students Parents Business Community Faculty & Staff Alumni Skip to Content ? my CalPoly login Quick Links College of Science & Mathematics Statistics Department Home About Us Academics Faculty Prospective Students Giving Contact Us Search Home : Message from Department Chair Allan Rossman Message from Department Chair Allan Rossman Stat Department Home Faculty Advising Major Information Minor Information Actuary Information Courses Tutoring Grad School Info Consulting Stat Club Newsletter In Memory Contact Us Bob Smidt passing on the baton to Allan Rossman I am proud to begin a term as chair of Cal Poly’s Statistics Department. We have a terrific group of students and faculty to work and study alongside. I want to thank my predecessor, Bob Smidt, and the others who have served in this role over the years — Jay Devore, Roxy Peck and Jim Daly — for paving the way and establishing such a delightful environment in which to teach, study and learn. This is an especially exciting time to be involved with the discipline of statistics for many reasons: We are nearing the end of a yearlong celebration of 2013 as the International Year of Statistics . Nate Silver has garnered popular acclaim for the usefulness of statistical methods by predicting the last two presidential elections very accurately while blogging about his modeling process and observations. Hans Rosling has achieved worldwide recognition for his TED talks and The Joy of Stats video that reveal how statistics can improve human welfare. The Wall Street Journal published an article titled Data Crunchers Now the Cool Kids on Campus on March 1, 2013, detailing the explosive growth in the number of undergraduates pursuing degrees in statistics. Statistics students at Cal Poly have long known that they were the cool kids on campus, but it’s nice to see a major newspaper broadcast this news to the rest of the world. http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/message-department-chair-allan-rossman[1/2/2014 2:50:35 PM] Message from Department Chair Allan Rossman - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo One of the most pleasant aspects of being department chair has been hearing updates from alumni about their career paths and accomplishments. I wrote to as many graduates as I could find contact information for on LinkedIn and Facebook, and I was gratified to hear back from dozens of alums whose updates you can read in this newsletter. Simply perusing the job titles of our graduates is inspiring. I hope that others will judge the quality of our program by the achievements of our graduates. Let me highlight the accomplishments of one alumnus in particular. Dr. Greg Ridgway serves as the acting director of the National Institute of Justice, which is the research, development, and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. Greg graduated from Cal Poly in 1995 with a degree in statistics and then earned a doctorate from the University of Washington. He also received the distinction of being elected a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 2013. You can read more about Greg elsewhere in this newsletter. Our terrific faculty members also contribute to the top-notch quality of Cal Poly’s Statistics Department and are held in high esteem across campus and around the country: Beth Chance served on a National Science Foundation task force that offered recommendations for restructuring NSF funding opportunities in statistical sciences. She is also a member of a group assembled by the American Statistical Association to revise guidelines for undergraduate programs in statistics. Steve Rein serves as chair of Cal Poly’s Academic Senate, and Andrew Schaffner continues as chair of the senate's curriculum committee. These are important positions on campus, entrusted to those in whom the rest of the faculty has high confidence. Samuel Frame recently earned tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor, based on thorough department -, college- and university-level reviews of his performance in teaching, scholarship, and service. Andrew and Samuel are both graduates of our program as well as faculty members. We have also been fortunate in the past couple of years to hire outstanding new faculty members who are starting to make their mark on Cal Poly students. Kevin Ross, Gail Potter, Gary Hughes and Peter Chi all joined our department in the 2012-13 academic year. You can read about some of Gary’s research interests elsewhere in this newsletter. Before I close, I want to assure you that we are committed not only to maintaining a strong undergraduate program in statistics but also to continually improving our program. This year we are engaging in wide-ranging discussions and planning about how to better prepare our students to make important contributions to a world that is becoming more and more inundated with data. We are planning to revise some courses and develop new ones. We are also collaborating with colleagues in computer science to develop a new minor program in data science. We would like to hear from all of you, graduates and friends of the Cal Poly Statistics Department. Please send us any ideas you have about how we can best serve our students. Also please send us an update about what and how you are doing, both professional accomplishments and personal joys. Best wishes, Allan Rossman arossman@calpoly.edu CP Home Directory Get Adobe Reader Campus Maps & Directions Bookstore Calendar Employment Microsoft Viewers http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/message-department-chair-allan-rossman[1/2/2014 2:50:35 PM] Campus Policies Contact Us © 2014 California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo, California 93407 Phone: 805-756-1111 Featured Alumni - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Current Students Prospective Students Parents Business Community Faculty & Staff Alumni Skip to Content ? my CalPoly login Quick Links College of Science & Mathematics Statistics Department Home About Us Academics Faculty Prospective Students Giving Contact Us Search Home : Featured Alumni Stat Department Home Featured Alumni Faculty Advising Major Information Debbie Huang While still a student, Debbie Huang (B.S., Statistics, 2013) won two awards at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students held in San Jose, Calif., in November 2012. Students from all over the country made presentations in the areas of math, engineering and physics. Huang received a presentation award and one of only three interdisciplinary awards for her poster on the statistical analysis of cardiovascular disease in women. Minor Information Huang conducted her research at the Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh in summer 2012. Analyzing data collected on women with ischemic heart disease, a condition in which plaque builds up in the arteries, Huang assessed survival rates for different groups. Her analysis focused on smokers versus non-smokers. Stat Club "This area of research is fairly new," Huang said. Data on heart disease in women has only been collected for about a decade. According to Huang, the Learn by Doing education she received at Cal Poly gave her an edge when it came to doing real-world research. "I felt very prepared to learn information and techniques I'd never seen before," she said. Huang is currently a graduate student at UCLA. She is pursuing a master's degree in biostatistics and working as an educational consultant at Mathtopian Preparation Inc. "I got the initial research experience I need to prepare me for grad school, and presenting my results at conferences improved my communication skills each time," Huang said. Greg Ridgeway In January, Greg Ridgeway (B.S., Statistics, 1995) was named acting director of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and development agency within the U.S. Department of Justice. The NIJ works to improve scientific understanding of crime and justice through studying areas such as which public policies deter crime or how to make DNA evidence faster and cheaper. Ridgeway earned his doctorate in statistics from the University of Washington, where he was also a lecturer and visiting scholar. In joining NIJ, Ridgeway also enters the Senior Executive Service, the highest leadership position in the federal government's civil service. Members of the Senior Executive Service work in key positions just below top presidential appointees. The newsletter of the American Statistical Association invited him to respond to questions about his first role at NIJ, deputy director. Shortly thereafter, Ridgeway was named acting director and interviewed by Scientific American http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/featured-alumni[1/2/2014 2:54:00 PM] Actuary Information Courses Tutoring Grad School Info Consulting Newsletter In Memory Contact Us Featured Alumni - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Read the article in Amstat News Read the article in Scientific American CP Home Directory Get Adobe Reader Campus Maps & Directions Bookstore Microsoft Viewers http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/featured-alumni[1/2/2014 2:54:00 PM] Calendar Employment Campus Policies Contact Us © 2014 California Polytechnic State University CAL POLY San Luis Obispo, California 93407 Phone: 805-756-1111 Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Current Students Prospective Students Parents Business Community Faculty & Staff Alumni Skip to Content ? my CalPoly login Quick Links College of Science & Mathematics Statistics Department Home About Us Academics Faculty Prospective Students Giving Contact Us Search Home : Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter Stat Department Home Faculty Advising Adams, Matt GRADUATED IN 2010 After graduating from Cal Poly in 2010, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in applied statistics at Long Beach State. I graduated from CSULB in late 2012 and in April 2013 I began my current job at an online marketing company in mid-city Los Angeles called LocalBizNOW. We specialize in search engine marketing for franchised companies such as UPS and service and repair at Ford dealerships. I work as an analyst and spend most of my time optimizing campaigns, putting together reports and figuring out ideal budgets for our clients. On a personal note, I got married in August to my beautiful bride Jessica, who also graduated from Cal Poly with a kinesiology degree. Major Information Minor Information Actuary Information Courses Tutoring Grad School Info Consulting Stat Club Newsletter Angeles, Rudy In Memory GRADUATED IN 2004 Contact Us Life is nonlinear. I finally completed my doctorate in statistics from Stanford after spending an extended period of time away from grad school. My dissertation discussed approaches for local false discovery rates, and I was co-advised by Susan Holmes and Brad Efron. After submitting my thesis, I joined Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. I sometimes travel to Switzerland because I work closely with an engineering team that's based in our Zurich office. Colavincenzo, Jenna GRADUATED IN 2012 After graduating from Cal Poly, I began pursuing a doctorate in biostatistics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. I am currently in the middle of my second year of the program. As a graduate student researcher, I am collaborating with the Human Genetics and Oral Biology Departments on projects investigating oral health in Appalachia as well as the phenotypes and genetics of orofacial clefts (cleft lip and palate). While most of my time is spent studying and feeding my coffee addiction, I can occasionally be found rooting for the Penguins, Pittsburgh’s hockey team, and dreaming that I was back in sunny San Luis Obispo. Conway, Jacqueline GRADUATED IN 2005 I am currently working in San Francisco at Gap Inc. in the Customer Relationship Management Department. I am a senior data scientist on the advanced analytics team. In fact, I just hired another Cal Poly statistics alum, Jewels Lee, as an analyst. Davis, Scott GRADUATED IN 2012 I live and work in Carlsbad, Calif., working for Agility Clinical as a statistical programmer. We are a contract research organization specializing in the analysis of orphan and rare disease research. Never in http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/alumni-updates-2013-newsletter[1/2/2014 2:55:55 PM] Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo my life has my commute provided me with so many sunrises and sunsets at the beach. Cal Poly's curriculum has allowed me to delve into tasks that new programmers typically do not get exposure to this early on. Four months in, and this place is working out great. This position has afforded my girlfriend, Christine, and I the opportunity to travel frequently, go camping, and do a lot of woodworking. Dehaven, Mary Ellen GRADUATED IN 2009 Currently I am working as a statistician at a consulting firm in San Francisco, Datasong. I commonly use fun statistical techniques like cluster analysis and multivariate logistic regression for clients such as Intel, Visa and DirectTV. No Olympic medal in sight, but I have been back to compete in Cal Poly's MTS triathlon at Lopez Lake a couple of times and just finished my first marathon in San Francisco this summer. Eash, Dawn GRADUATED IN 2004 I am currently a senior managing consultant with Berkeley Research Group in Century City, Calif. I primarily consult on litigation matters within the fields of labor, intellectual property, healthcare and public policy. I enjoy living in Santa Monica but also love to travel — anywhere from Montreal for JSM to the South of France this past May. Esquivas, Kristen (Sharp) GRADUATED IN 2006 After finishing up my degree, I moved up to the Bay Area to work at Gap Inc. I held several jobs working on store and customer analytics across all the Gap Inc. brands. While working at Gap, I took evening classes at Cal State East Bay and completed my Masters in Statistics. I then briefly worked at Hotwire.com in the Revenue Management department focusing on pricing, forecasting, and customer analytics. My most recent career move landed me at Safeway’s corporate offices in the Marketing Strategies department. Our team is focused on driving strategic business decisions by leveraging customer and store data. The common theme across all my jobs has been leveraging data (lots of data!) and analysis to uncover business insights and drive strategic change. It’s a great balance between technical/analytical skills and soft skills like communication and team work. Across all my jobs, it’s hard to find new hires that are strong along both dimensions. It’s a unique combination but one that is highly sought after, particularly in the retail industry. From my experience, the CP Stats department does a great job at preparing students to be successful both technically (statistical concepts and programming) and non-technically (communication, presentations, and team work). Anyone interested retail in the bay area, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn … shameless plug (sorry!) but good candidates are hard to find! All the while, I got married in 2010 and had my first baby this past February. We recently bought a new home and are slowly getting settled in to the new place. I also love keeping busy with yoga, running, cooking, playdates for Emma and all her little cousins, and keeping up with my favorite TV shows. Evans, Megan GRADUATED IN 2011 Since graduation in 2011, I've been working as an Actuarial Analyst at Pacific Life in Orange County, California. Specifically, I work in the Product Design department of the Life Division and develop and price Life Insurance products. I've enjoyed settling back in to my hometown of Laguna Beach. In the past couple of years, like many actuaries I have been focused on passing exams. I've passed Exam P, FM, C and MFE, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. One more exam and I'll have my ASA, which is an exciting event in the Actuarial world! Other than work, I've had the opportunity to vacation in Costa Rica in 2012 and Wales in 2013. Both trips were amazing and I'll continue to never let my vacation days go to waste! Last Spring I visited Cal Poly to discuss the actuarial career which was a great opportunity. It was exciting and rewarding to see so many more Statistics students interested in becoming actuaries! http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/alumni-updates-2013-newsletter[1/2/2014 2:55:55 PM] Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo Fajardo, Juliana GRADUATED IN 2011 Along with working in a managerial position for two years after graduation, I was an independent statistical consultant for two years; I assisted with survey design and analysis throughout the full course of my client’s work on her PhD dissertation in social work. This was a very interesting and rewarding experience! I am now attending the University of Colorado Denver and pursuing a Masters degree in Public Administration (MPA). I am currently in my first semester at CU Denver and I absolutely love the program so far! Fry, Alicia GRADUATED IN 2005 After completing my BS in Statistics at Cal Poly I attended Cal State Long Beach and attained a MS in Applied Statistics. I worked as a Business Intelligence Analyst at Ingram Micro and then decided to pursue another master's degree in Media at London School of Economics. After completing my studies there, I moved back to Los Angeles and worked as a Print Control Manager in Operations at Paramount Pictures. While working there I married and had my first child. Soon after she was born I moved to Sacramento for my husband's job and have been a stay at home mom since. Presently I am taking care of my 2 year old daughter, 5 month old son, and 35 year old husband, and have no short term plans to re-enter the paid work force. I have a long term goal to start an analytics and business strategy company with my brother where we can offer business solutions and marketing recommendations at low costs. My personal time is spent reading books, studying German and attending community college courses in creative writing and poetry. Fugitt, Tempus GRADUATED IN 2010 Currently, I am working for Sutter Physician Services as a Deposit Service Rep II. Basically, I balance half a million dollar deposits on the daily. No big deal. There’s not too much stats involved, but I love my job and the people I work with, and the logic skills I gained through the Statistics program certainly come into play every day. I recently got accepted to Texas A&M’s online Master’s program with the help of a few most excellent professors (shout out to Dr. Carlton, Dr. Doi, and Dr. Roy. Thanks again guys!). Classes start up in January and I couldn’t be more excited. My biggest accomplishment this year was running in the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco. This was my second half marathon this year and one of the best experiences of my life. Gan, Rebecca GRADUATED IN 2006 Time really flies. I cannot believe it has already been 7 years since I graduated from Cal Poly - SLO. I received my Ph.D. in Applied Statistics at UC Riverside with full scholarship in 2011 and joined Kelley Blue Book as a Statistician. As with many statisticians, my day to day job is a mixture of analyzing data, building models, doing research, and trying to figure out how to deal with large and complex data structures. Regarding my personal life, I got married in Jan 2008 and bought a lovely house in Diamond Bar. Garrison, Tommy GRADUATED IN 2007 I graduated from the Stats department in 2007 and later went on to obtain a MS in Quantitative Ecology from the University of Washington. For the past three years, I have been working for a small fisheries consulting firm in Portland, OR as a Biometrician. I routinely build statistical and population models for a variety of fish species throughout the Northwest including steelhead, salmon and sturgeon. Recently, I bought a house in Portland with fellow Cal Poly Stat alumni, Maria Loper. The two of us have been together since we met in the Stats department many years ago. Gasperik, Kyle GRADUATED IN 2010 http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/alumni-updates-2013-newsletter[1/2/2014 2:55:55 PM] Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo I am currently a Senior Consultant at Junction Solutions (a nationwide ERP consulting company based out of the Bay Area). I was hired directly after graduation from Cal Poly and in the last three years have advanced into a senior position. I have had the opportunity to travel all across the nation for work to places including Atlanta, Seattle, and Denver to name a few. My main responsibility within my current projects has been the improvement and optimization of business processes, focusing in supply chain management. Gildner, Jennifer GRADUATED IN 2011 I graduated in December 2011 with my BS in Applied Math and minor in Statistics. I worked for a year and a half at Allergan Medical in Santa Barbara as a statistical programmer. Now, I am in my first year in the graduate program at UCLA, working toward my MS in Biostatistics. Unfortunately, no Olympic medals for me...though I did complete my first half marathon! :) Glanz, Hunter GRADUATED IN 2009 I am currently in my fifth year of a Statistics Ph.D. program at Boston University and plan to graduate in May 2014. I had the wonderful opportunity to help grade the 2013 AP Statistics exam (alongside my favorite professors from Cal Poly) in June 2013 and I hope to join again in June 2014. I will also be getting married in June 2014. I look forward to finding a position somewhere in California to start at in Summer or Fall of 2014! Grantham, Neal GRADUATED IN 2012 This summer I took our dreaded Basic Qualifying Exam and earned a PhD pass (vs. Master's pass or no pass). It was a great relief to get that out of the way! I was perhaps a bit too ambitious this semester, however, and I'm finding it difficult to adequately cover coursework, teaching duties, and research in any given week. Grad school truly necessitates good time management, as I've learned. I'm currently in my second year as a Statistics graduate student at NC State University. This semester I am taking courses on Bayesian inference, computing, and measure theory, and I have just begun research with Dr. Brian Reich on spatial and temporal modeling of particulate matter levels across the Southeastern U.S via multi-resolution satellite image data. Outside of academic life, I've been very active in running and exploring Raleigh's backroads. Grogan, Tristan GRADUATED IN 2009 I graduated from Cal Poly in 2009 and then attended CSU Long Beach for my master's degree in Statistics. Since graduating in 2011 I've been working as a Principal Statistician for the Department of Medicine Statistics Core at UCLA. We are a consulting group of approximately 10 (faculty/staff) statisticians who assist the medical school with clinical trials, research, manuscripts, posters, grants, and education. I also do some statistical consulting work on the side because I really enjoy it. I have adjusted well to living in West LA. There is so much to do down here and the weather is always perfect! I was in SLO last January to give a job talk to the current students and can't wait to go back. Feel free to contact me if you are a current student and have questions about graduate school, the job search, or general advice about the field. I can't thank the department enough for giving me a solid foundation in the field allowing me to pursue a rewarding and enjoyable career. Haggerty, Hannah GRADUATED IN 2013 http://statistics.wcms.calpoly.edu/content/alumni-updates-2013-newsletter[1/2/2014 2:55:55 PM] Alumni Updates for 2013 Newsletter - Statistics Department - Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo A few weeks after graduation, I interviewed with Chevron’s Environmental Management Company (EMC) and found out shortly after that I was accepted for the position. Chevron’s Environmental Management Company has been continuously expanding their processes to improve Health, Environment, and Safety. My role in the company is the Health, Environment, and Safety (HES) Technical Specialist. The company has found that my statistical background and college education are both essential assets to this particular sector of the company. Although I never imagined that I would be out in the oil fields wearing a hard hat and steel-toed boots, I am thoroughly overjoyed to work for such an established company. This job was just one of the changes I encountered post-graduation. In addition, I recently got engaged to another Cal Poly Alum. It is safe to say this school has provided me with a lifetime of happiness. Herndon, Wade GRADUATED IN 2008 After graduating in 2008, I moved to Colorado and started the statistics graduate program at Colorado State. I received my master's degree in 2010 and am currently preparing to defend my Ph.D. dissertation, and am working on job applications. I've worked as a teaching and research assistant over the last five years, and have been very successful in both roles; in fact, I won a teaching award last summer. Besides working on school, I have had a bit of time to travel - I've road-tripped to and from California 3.5 times and done quite a bit of camping along the way, and I've also bee