Student Opportunities

Scientific Conferences and Meetings

The Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology recognizes the role of participation in meetings and conferences in the professional development of our doctoral students and strongly encourages such participation. Each student may apply for a maximum of $1,500 in support of travel expenses from central departmental funds over the course of their doctoral studies. Funds obtained from other sources, including awards provided directly by conference organizers, will be considered supplemental. Students are also encouraged to apply for travel awards in the School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Some conferences and meetings attended by our students include:

• Amazon Graduate Research Symposium
• American Causal Inference Conference (ACIC)
• American Statistical Association Conference on Statistical Practice (CSP)
• Bioconductor Conference: Where Software and Biology Connect (BioC)
• Conference on Lifetime Data Science (LIDA)
• Eastern North American Region of The International Biometric Society Meeting (ENAR)
• Global Symposium of Innovation in Trauma Research Methods
• Great Lakes Bioinformatics and the Canadian Computational Biology Conference (GLBIO/CCBC)
• International Chinese Statistical Association Applied Statistics Symposium (ICSA)
• International Conference of the ERCIM Working Group on Computational and Methodological Statistics (CMStatistics)
• International Conference on Big Data and Information Analytics (BigDIA)
• International Conference on Computational and Financial Econometrics (CFE)
• International Society for Bayesian Analysis World Meeting (ISBA)
• International Society for Computational Biology Conference (ISCB)
• International Society for Computerized Electrocardiology Annual Conference (ISCE)
• Italian Statistical Society Classification and Data Analysis Group (CLADAG)
• Joint Conference of the Upstate Chapters of the American Statistical Association (UP-STAT)
• Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM)
• New England Statistics Symposium (NESS)
• Penn Conference on Big Data in Biomedical and Population Health Sciences
• Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting
• Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute Workshop (SAMSI)
• Summer Institute in Statistical Genetics (SISG)
• Western North American Region of The International Biometric Society Meeting  (WNAR)
• Women in Statistics and Data Science Conference (WSDS)

Summer Internships

PhD students may complete external internships during the summer. Students are encouraged to review the free professional development resources available through the school’s myHub before applying for internships. Career services offered include one-on-one counseling on interviewing skills, networking strategies, and developing strong CVs, resumes, and cover letters. International students studying on the F-1 visa will need to contact the University's International Services Office (ISO) for Curricular Practical Training (CPT) instructions.

Statistics students have completed paid internships at locations including:

• AbbVie (Illinois)
• Allergan (California)
• Amgen (California)
• Argonne National Laboratory (Illinois)
• Bank of America (North Carolina)
• Bayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals (New Jersey)
• Biogen (Massachusetts)
• Bristol Myers Squibb (remote)
• Capital One (Texas)
• Chevron Oronite Company (California)
• CNA Insurance (Illinois)
• Constellation Brands (New York)
• DuPont Company (Delaware)
• EY Ernst & Young (New York)
• Excellus BlueCross BlueShield (New York)
• Genentech (California)
• Google (California)
• Institute for Defense Analyses (Virginia)
• Janssen Research & Development (New Jersey)
• Johnson & Johnson (remote)
• Liberty Mutual Insurance (Massachusetts)
• Mayo Clinic (Minnesota)
• Medivation (California)
• Merck & Co. (Pennsylvania)
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Maryland)
• Novartis Pharmaceuticals (New Jersey)
• PharmaLex (Massachusetts)
• Quantarium (Washington)
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (New York)
• SAS Institute (North Carolina)
• Takeda Pharmaceuticals (Massachusetts)
• Travelers Insurance (Connecticut)
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration (Maryland)
• Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Massachusetts)

Statistical Consulting Service

The Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology offers a Statistical Consulting Service with services ranging from purely advisory assistance to complete mathematical/statistical analysis and data management support for projects. Faculty members are available to serve as research collaborators and statistical consultants, with support from research associates and graduate research assistants. Doctoral students in their third year or higher will assist with consulting requests on a rotating schedule by attending consulting meetings with the faculty on-call and completing work requested by faculty for the research project.

Environmental Health Biostatistics Training Grant

Statistics PhD students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents may apply to join our T32 training program. The goal of this training grant is to prepare qualified predoctoral and/or postdoctoral trainees for careers that have a significant impact on the health-related research needs of the nation. The training environment is achieved by a collaboration between biostatisticians and Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) researchers. Funding is provided by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (T32ES007271).

Biostatistics and Computational Biology Department Seminars

The department has a colloquium series in which both senior and junior faculty from around the country travel to Rochester to give a seminar and meet with faculty and students. The department also hosts an annual lecture by a distinguished statistician in honor of Dr. Charles L. Odoroff, the founding Director of the Division of Biostatistics (now the Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology) at the University of Rochester, and another annual lecture in honor of Dr. Andrei Yakovlev, who as Chair led a substantial expansion of the department, particularly in the areas of bioinformatics and computational biology.

All department members are invited to attend meetings on a variety of topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The meetings are intended to raise awareness, provide a forum to discuss issues related to these topics, and provide an opportunity to learn from other people's stories and perspectives. Most meetings are open only to department members, and generally consist of watching a short video followed by small group discussions and concluding with a short discussion with the whole group. Topics have included microaggression and implicit bias. Some meetings are replaced by seminars given by outside speakers and are open to a wider audience. Topics of outside seminars have included hidden curriculum and pipeline programs for undergraduates to support diversity.

Annual Statistics PhD Student Workshop

The Annual Statistics PhD Student Workshop includes presentations by all PhD students in the department who have passed the Advanced Examination but have not yet passed their Proposal (Qualifying) Examination. The primary purpose of the Workshop is to allow students to obtain feedback on their research ideas from the entire program faculty, whose perspectives may be somewhat different from that of the primary research advisor and potentially quite valuable. The Workshop also provides additional experience for each student in preparing and delivering a presentation on a topic of their particular interest.

Future Faculty Workshops

Students who are considering a career in academia are invited to attend Future Faculty Workshops sponsored by the offices of the Provost and Faculty Development and Diversity. These workshops offer information and hands-on experience with aspects of faculty life not traditionally part of graduate curriculums. The series aims to prepare the next generation of faculty and to give University of Rochester graduates a competitive edge in the academic marketplace.

Scientific Communication and Leadership Courses

The school offers several optional interdepartmental (IND) courses related to scientific communication and leadership, including:

• IND 414 Scientific Writing: Principles and Practice
• IND 417 Workshop in Scientific Communications
• IND 420 Mastering Scientific Information
• IND 426 Scientific Communication for Diverse Audiences
• IND 438 Practical Skills in Grant Writing
• IND 439 Leadership and Management for Scientists
• IND 442 Science Outreach to All

Graduate Student Groups

The Graduate Student Society (GSS) maintains a list of current student-run and University of Rochester organizations open to School of Medicine and Dentistry graduate student membership. The 2023-2024 GSS department representative is 4^th year PhD student Luke McHan.

The Rochester Data Science Society (RDSS) serves all students at the University who are interested in data science, statistics, computer science, engineering, health analytics, economics, and other related fields. The society was established in 2017 by Shiyang Ma (MA '15, PhD '19), along with students from the Health Services Research, Epidemiology, and Computer Science graduate programs.