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Rebecca Randhawa

    • About Me:

      I’m a medical statistician based in the Midlands. I live with husband, my adorable 2 year old daughter and my lovely 13 year old step-daughter. I love yoga, travelling and food!

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      I have an unusual background for a mathematician- I actually started off training to be a doctor, before switching to study a masters degree in Medical Statistics! I love having both medical and statistical training and find it really helps me when working with my medical colleagues. It’s made me realise that it’s ok not to know from the start what you want to do with your life- you can figure it out along the way!

    • My pronouns are:

      She/her

    • How I use Maths in my work:

      I use lots of maths in my job, specifically statistics- which is so much more exciting than it sounds, I promise! I crunch the numbers to help people understand what the data actually means. I use means, medians, ranges etc, to summarise the numbers and then I use all kinds of complicated statistics to try and understand whether the new medicine works or not. I also get to make lots of colourful graphs, like bar-charts and histograms, to visually make sense of all the numbers.

    • My Work:

      I help to design experiments to test new medicines in people, to make sure that they work and are safe to take. I also help doctors to understand the results and make sense of all the numbers!

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      I’m a medical statistician, and I work on cancer clinical trials. Maybe you heard about clinical trials during the COVID pandemic? I don’t work studying vaccines but instead, I use maths to help bring new medicines to cancer patients. It’s a really interesting and rewarding job- even if you don’t always love maths (like me!!).

      You can think of me as a referee for medical research. When doctors test a new cancer treatment, I help plan how the trial is run, what data we collect and how we’ll check if the treatment really works. We look at things such as how long patients live, how their tumours respond to the treatment, and whether there are any side effects. It’s my job to crunch the numbers and make sure that the results are not just due to luck or chance! We need to be confident that the medicine truly works and that any side effects are worth it for our patients.

      I use technology a lot in my job and it helps me do lots of clever and interesting things with numbers!

    • My Typical Day:

      My job is incredibly varied and everyday is different. Some days I am elbow-deep in computer coding (yes, a bit like a hacker!), other days I am busy presenting colourful graphs and plots to doctors and scientists. Statistics can be full of jargon and technical terms, so I often need to help my colleagues to understand what the results mean- a bit like a teacher!

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      My work is very flexible and sometimes I work strange hours so that I can meet with colleagues working in different timezones all over the world! I attend meetings, review documents, present data, analyse data and attend conferences and training courses all over Europe!

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      I would use the money to fund more places on the ‘I’m a Scientist scheme’ so that more brilliant scientists and mathematicians could share there passion and inspire the next generation!

    CV

    • Education:

      I went to Higham Lane secondary school, where I realised that I liked and was good at science. I didn’t especially like maths and had to work a bit harder at it. I would NEVER have believed I’d end up a statistician!! Then I attended a local sixth form college and studied science and maths- at this point I had decided to study to become a doctor (spoiler- I changed my mind!).

      I attended medical school at the University of Birmingham and then did my post-graduate degree in Medical Statistics at the University of Leicester..

    • Qualifications:

      Secondary School: GCSEs: 8 A* and 4 A grade including maths, English, chemistry, biology and physics.

      Sixth Form College: AS levels: Further mathematics A. A levels: Mathematics A, Chemistry A, Physics A, Biology A* (2013-2014).

      University of Birmingham: Medical Studies BSc (2:1 hons), Clinical Sciences BMedSc (1st hons).

      University of Leicester: Medical Statistics MSc (Distinction)

    • Work History:

      I started my career as a Trainee Medical Statistician at Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit, at the University of Birmingham. Then I moved to a pharmaceutical company called Amgen and I’ve been there ever since! I started as a Senior Associate Biostatistics and progressed to a Biostatistics Manager.

    • Current Job:

      Currently, I am a Biostatistics Manager at a company which makes new medicines for patients with lots of different diseases, not just cancer. I work on a drug to treat a type of lung cancer.

    • Employer:

      I work for a (bio)-pharmaceutical company called Amgen, based in California. Unfortunately I work in the UK and am still waiting for my invite to visit the headquarters!

    • My Interview

      • What did you want to be after you left school?

        Scientist

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        Sometimes for talking too much in class!

        If you weren't doing this job, what would you choose instead?

        I was almost a doctor!

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Ed Sheeran

        What's your favourite food?

        Pizza

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        Travel the world, Cure cancer (although this might put me out of a job!), Become Prime Minister

        Tell us a joke.

        Why do statisticians love the average? Because it’s mean to ignore it!

Questions answered by Rebecca

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