SOP Sample for PhD in Statistical Research

“The most important questions of life are, for the most part, really only problems of probability.”

• Pierre Simon Laplace

This quote by Pierre Simon Laplace, the famous French scholar, rightly explains how miraculous Statistics is! Every situation in some way or the other boils down to a statistical puzzle, and this exactly is what made me choose statistics as my career path. On this chosen path, along with the theorems and principles in statistics, I also learned patience, problem-solving skills, the value of hard work and self-confidence. Although I agree that Statistics is a difficult subject, I can confidently say that it is probably the best subject one can learn!

Academic background:

During my Bachelor of Science program with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Statistics, I could learn many interesting exploratory techniques, like correlation and regression, time series analysis, hypothesis testing, demography, etc. I also did one project using the basic statistical techniques, titled “Analysis of Changing Food Habits of People in Dubai City”. My role in the project mainly comprised of designing the questionnaire and carrying out the statistical tests on the collected data. Along with simple descriptive statistics, statistical tests like chi-square test of independence, t-test, large sample tests, etc were used for this purpose. R- Software and MS Excel was used in the analysis. The project provided me with a remarkable experience of applying the knowledge in practice. I was able to score 90% marks aggregated in all the subjects at B.Sc. and 95% in Statistics. I bagged the “PPQRS Prize” for securing the highest number of marks in Statistics subject at the B.Sc. examination at the University of Auckland.

After this success, I decided to continue my journey with statistics by going for a master’s degree. Apart from subjects like Mathematical Analysis, Probability Theory, Probability Distributions, Regression Analysis, Inference, Stochastic Processes, Design of Experiments, Sampling Theory, as my elective subjects, I chose Microarray Data Analysis and Statistical Methods in Biocomputing in order to combine both of my interests – Statistics and biology. In the third semester of the M.Sc. course, we did a project for a competition based on the theme “Role of Statistics in Studying Climate Changes”. My role was to apply some statistical tools to the data using statistical software like R, MINITAB, EasyFit, ITSM, and MS Excel in order to detect climate change. Using PCA rainfall and temperature were found to be the most significant variables as they explained maximum variation in the data. Through cluster analysis, it was observed that the clusters of climate stations according to climate patterns changed over time.

We decided on the same project as our Master’s degree project which is a part of the curriculum in the fourth semester. We tried applying “Fingerprint Method” on climate data, which helps us in determining the role of anthropogenic factors in climate change. Based on the available data, we concluded that there is a significant effect of anthropogenic factors on climate. There were many challenges with respect to the data were faced during the project. My project guide Dr.  Fernandez gave us sufficient time to go through the literature, understand the concepts and apply it to our data. The two years of master’s degree ended very well for me, with a CGPA of 5.43 of 6 and second rank in the department. By this time I had made my choice regarding future career paths, which was research and teaching.

Working experience:

Before the results of M.Sc. were announced, I was placed in Yellow Bat, Sydney, Australia which is a leading market research company through the campus placement activity. I consider myself fortunate for I could associate with a company with a huge research culture. I worked with a great team consisting of statisticians from across Asia and the United States of America, mainly dealing with the analysis of market data for the North America region. Though I worked with Nielsen for a brief period of 9 months, the generous learning I could get there would be definitely cherished by me for the lifetime.

Presently I am working with ABCD University, New Zealand as an assistant professor in Statistics. I have also been working in the Cultural Committee, National Service Scheme unit of the college and Women’s Forum. I am also working as the coordinator of the Environmental Forum of the college.

My Aspirations:

I assume my past experience in the form of small projects and thesis in various areas of Statistics makes me eligible to be a part of this program. I am keen on contributing to the ongoing research at the LMNO’s research facility and this will be my first step towards understanding and gaining hands-on experience in innovations and complexities in circuit designing and computer systems.

UBC’s Engineering department is known for its innovative research facilities, technically advanced labs with the latest equipment and dynamic curriculum, which will give me an opportunity to understand and learn modern techniques. I believe it will give direction to my career and future goals. In future years I see myself working as a research associate in my field of interest.

At LMNO university, I am particularly drawn towards work by Dr. Eben Kennedy in phylogenetics, Dr. Mark Contour, and Dr. Daniel Chahal in biostatistics and computational biology, Dr. Ken Lawrence in statistical genetics and Dr. Erick Atkinson in biostatistics in sync with my research pursuits. However, I would like to get in touch with other faculties as well in order to get a broad overlook of their research endeavors.