Biostatistics Alumni

Kyle Bennett, MS Biostatistics 2019

I graduated in May, 2019 with a Master of Science degree in Biostatistics. My employer, Neogen Corporation, then promoted me to the newly created position of "Biostatistician". In this role, primary responsibilities include acting as Subject Matter Expert on statistical and data analysis for the various corporate segments including Food Safety, Animal Safety, and Genomics. Future projects include Big Data analysis on behalf of our customers and the utilization of advanced data analytics and statistics in the design of experiments, validations, report review, risk analysis, and troubleshooting. One of my favorite aspects about this position thus far is that I now get to work with individuals across my entire organization that I've never worked with before. It's an opportunity to become even more familiar with my company's strategic growth plan and service offerings and become a major player in those efforts.

The Biostatistics & Epidemiology program was perfectly suited in preparing me for this role and the responsibilities associated with it. Through a rigorous curriculum that covered a multitude of concepts including advanced data analysis methods, proper approach to clinical data, and the opportunity to focus on special projects (my independent study was on Machine Learning!), I was able to form a robust skill set with respect to interpreting data. For example, within just days of announcing the promotion, our R&D team was able to consult with me on how to carefully test their datasets for detecting differences in means and variance, improving the progress of a major internal project immediately. 

So many of the world's industries & public services are moving toward big data analysis to help with decision making, risk analysis, and policy change. It's a fantastic movement to be a part of and MSU's Biostats & Epidemiology department helped prepare me for that!