It’s been a whopping 2.5 weeks of conferences, presentations, exploration and learning in September for me. Kicking off at the Royal Statistical Society International Conference (RSS) in early September (2 presentations), to a week at Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME, University of Washington, Seattle) (2 invited lectures), followed by a week-long conferences and workshops at the International Population Data Linkage Network Conference (IPDLN) at Chicago (1 poster, 2 presentations). Lots of “firsts” this month, and this is a blog to organise my thoughts and experiences!
RSS – 4-5th September
My first ever RSS conference and I wish I had learned about it sooner! The conference is a great mix of statistical theory, methods and applied research, and an international representation with >700 attendees from academia, media, and people from government statistics. A flurry of exceptional talks and keynotes started with Tim Harford, reaffirming that it is key to reject the notion that “Stats can tell you anything” because it becomes synonymous to “Stats can tell you nothing” – undermining the confidence of the public (and sometimes our own!) towards statistics. Pivotal to my theoretical thinking & development is Erica Thompson’s talk and book “Escape from Model Land”, encapsulating the need for modellers to make use of their expert knowledge in their interpretation of statistical models, and take accountability, instead of pretending there is strong objectivity in research. My talk as the winner of the RSS Early Career Writing Competition was well received, with several follow-up chats and emails. It’s another imposter syndrome moment – who am I to give a talk to these brilliant and renowned statisticians!? People I met at the conference were kind and open to conversations, and I felt very welcomed from start to finish. Statisticians are a special group of people!
IHME – Seattle, University of Washington
Hans Rosling, IHME
First few steps into the building and was greeted with Hans Rosling’s quote “Stay open to new data and be prepared to keep freshening up your knowledge.” Another humbling experience giving a 1-hour seminar, titled: The Road to Racial Health Equity Starts with Data Equity, Transparency and Clarity, with a strong 80+ audience online, and 10 in the room. Again I fell into my typical long-winded mode and couldn’t finish all of my slides, but it is re-assuring knowing that what I have been working on in the last 2 years can be meaningful and impactful to how researchers approaches racial and ethnic health inequalities. The dynamics at IHME is always upbeat with biweekly goal settings and meetings. As a PhD student, my research is sometimes a bit isolated from the rest of the group. It is quite nice to re-immerse in a team-based research process for a bit! I was ecstatic to visit the paediatric residents on the Health Equity Track at Seattle Children Hospital, had great conversations about quantitative and qualitative approaches to improving health equity. Also inspired my initiative to share our stories!
IPDLN 2024, Chicago
Chicago – it’s been over a decade since I last visited and it is ever-stunning. IPDLN Edinburgh was my first conference as part of my PhD, I was 3 months in, and was properly amazed by the breadth and depth of topics discussed then. I hoped I could one day have an opinion, have something valuable to add to this community – and I did! With new friends I met at IHME, I was invited to help out at a pre-conference workshop, presented a poster with international collaborators (and meeting some for the first time in person!), and gave 2 different presentations. I am so glad to have met people across UK, US, AUS, NZ and beyond, working in inter-related areas on record linkage. Incredible workshop on data visualisation by Rowena from Wales, and again featuring Hans Rosling on his BBC visualisation on life expectancy! His legacy is felt deeply in this trip, and every time we hear from colleagues working with Swedish data! I look forward to keep being a part of this evolving community!
Presenting work led by Sumayya Ziyad who cannot make it to Chicago this time.
Having Fun
I have yet to talk about the entertainment and cultural exchange bit 🙂 Seattle and Chicago has treated me well, from Space Needle to the Bean, from underground walk to architectural boat trip, from jazz club to blues bar, from Burke Museum to Second City, from Seahawks to the Cubs! This will be undoubtedly a fond memory when I finish my PhD – final stretch, now back to work!
JosePhD 