Colin Hwang, BS 2011

Senior Medical Informaticist at Blue Shield of California, Oakland, CA

How has being a Statistical Science graduate from Duke helped shape you personally and/or professionally?

"Personally, I think it has given me the confidence to tackle any problem life may throw at you, even if it's not mathematical or statistical in nature. The statistics classes I took at Duke really helped sharpen my problem solving skills. Professionally, it has given me a solid foundation to further develop more skills and knowledge in my career path of being an actuary and a data scientist."

What advice would you give students in Duke's Statistical Science programs?

"I would advise students to get more exposure to computer programming. I didn't realize the importance of it until after graduation. Now with the rise of data science, programming skills will be even more important."

Hwang