Meghan Zacher, a joint appointment with the Population Studies and Training Center, begins a position here at Brown as Assistant Professor of Population Studies (Research), supported by a K01 award from the National Institute on Aging. Her project aims to understand sex/gender differences in the patterns and predictors of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) among older U.S. adults, and the role of education in particular.

Shahrzad Haddadan worked with Eli Upfal’s (Computer Science) BigData group. Her work at Brown focused on (1) developing algorithms in the context when data (or an online network) is accessible by samples drawn from a Markov Chain (or a simple random walk), and  (2) developing mathematical tools to model social issues in online social networks and provide algorithmic solutions to mitigate undesirable effects on society. Shahrzad collaborated with other postdocs and graduate students at Brown to organize DSI’s Fair February symposium in 2020 and 2021. She will be starting a new position as Assistant Professor in the Rutgers Business School Department of Management Science & Information Systems this fall. 

Myungjin Kim worked with Roberta DeVito (DSI and Biostatistics). His research is in new modeling techniques for the joint analysis of multiple studies (especially clinical studies) to identify common patterns and study-specific features for multivariate count data. His research also includes applying advanced statistical methods based on flexible nonparametric techniques to several applications, such as environmental health. He is starting a position as Assistant Professor in Statistics at Kyungpook National University.

We asked all three to provide some advice for future DSI postdocs or share fun facts about themselves. Shahrzad has contributed to two children’s books in Farsi (her native language)! Her advice for postdocs is that Brown's DSI provides a great environment for invaluable collaborations, and that more important than publishing is to work with collaborators that you enjoy working with and who help you grow as a researcher. Meghan shared advice learned through her grant application process: stress less and take time to recharge! Myungjin shared a bunch of interesting facts about himself, including his love of cooking (favorite meal: jayukbokkeum, or Korean spicy stir-fried pork), skill at Korean chess, collection of souvenir magnets, and his love of the beach and the mountains. 

Thanks to all for their work in DSI, and best of luck in their future endeavors!