Outside Academia

 Speaker
 Date/Time
  Speaker Bio
Steven Bickerton

Dec. 2, 2020 / 12:00pm - 1:00pm

Video Link
Steve is a senior staff Data Scientist at Orbital Insight that develops enterprise solutions based on geospatial data. Steve was a software scientist at Princeton astro department from 2007-2012 and held a similar position at Kavli IPMU from 2012 to 2015. He obtained his PhD from McMaster University in Canada. Prior to that, he obtained his undergraduate degree in geophysics and a masters degree in astronomy and astrophysics from Queen’s University, Canada.
Connor Richards

Oct 28, 2020 / 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Video Link
Connor works as an applied data engineer at Civis Analytics. He obtained his Master's degree in Applied Math and Theoretical Physics from University of Cambridge and after a year in his PhD program at Princeton Physics, he joined Civis Analytics as an applied data scientist.  The conversation with Connor will cover through the differences between data scientist and data engineer positions, and the importance of a PhD (or a lack thereof) in these roles.
Waqas Bhatti

Oct 7, 2020 / 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Video Link
Waqas works as a senior software engineer at a startup company in Toronto, Canada that is currently in stealth mode. Many of you might know Waqas, as a long term fellow at Princeton until Summer of 2019: three years as a postdoctoral research associate and four years as Associate Research Scholar working on HAT exoplanet surveys. He obtained his PhD in astrophysics from John Hopkins University in 2012, by working on identifying and characterizing variable point sources in SDSS.  The conversation with Waqas will cover through the challenges and immense learning that happens in startup environments.
Nick Hand

Sep. 16, 2020 / 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Video Link
Nick works in the public sector, and is currently the Director of Finance, Policy and Data at the Office of the City Controller, Philadelphia. He started as a data scientist in the same office, and as a director, he now leads a team to produce data-driven, objective analysis of financial policy in the City of Philadelphia and improve transparency around the city's spending. He is also a lecturer at Penn for a geospatial data science and visualization course focused on public policy and city planning applications. Nick was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow and got his PhD in astrophysics from UC Berkeley towards the end of 2017. Prior to that, he graduated from Princeton in 2011 with a Bachelors in Astrophysics and a certificate in the applications of computing.  The conversation with Nick will cover through the topics of scientific method in public policy, career trajectory for scientists in the public sector and his experience in the office of the city controller in Philadelphia.
Reinabelle Reyes

Sep. 2, 2020 /
9:00am - 10:00am

Video Link
Reina graduated with a PhD in astrophysics from Princeton in 2011. She's currently an associate professor at the National Institute of Physics, University of Philippines, Dilman. She's also an independent data science consultant and director of Data Science and Analytics at Z-Life solutions in Manilla. She hosts a show titled "Science Says", an educational TV show for children and young adults, for which she also serves as a science consultant. She has been the (first) head of AC Analytics (Ayala Corporation) and Principal Data Scientist at UnitedHealth Group R&D. Finally, she's a TEDx speaker and is vocal on challenges faced by women in STEM fields.  Reina will stay online after 10am to talk about non-career related topics such as science popularization, women in STEM etc. with anyone who's interested.
Claire Lackner

Aug. 19, 2020 / 12:00pm-1:00pm
Claire Lackner obtained her PhD in Astrophysics from Princeton University in 2012 where she worked with Professor Jim Gunn and Professor Jeremy Ostriker for her thesis with galaxies in SDSS data and hydrodynamical simulations. She then moved to IPMU in Tokyo, Japan for a three year postdoctoral appointment.  Subsequently Claire has worked as a Data Scientist, first at Element Analytics and then at Netflix where she landed her career as a Senior Data Scientist.  She transitioned to data science through a two-month Insight Data Science fellowship in 2015.