SSA QLD Branch: Early Career and Student Networking Night

The Queensland Branch of the Statistical Society of Australia invites postgraduate students and early career statisticians to an evening built around the question: What does a career in statistics look like?  Three speakers, with backgrounds in academia, industry and government, will share their perspective about their beginnings, what their week involves and advice for those starting out. A brief panel session will give an opportunity to ask questions, with an extended networking session over food and drinks following this.

Date: Friday 30 October 2026

Time: 5:30 - 7:30 PM AEST

Venue: Room 14-216, Sir Llew Edwards Building, St Lucia Campus, University of Queensland

Presenter Bios:

Louise Marquart-Wilson, The University of Queensland and Cancer Council Queensland

Louise is a Senior Research Fellow in biostatistics in UQ's School of Public Health and Viertel Cancer Research Centre at CCQ and came to academia after several years as a biostatistician and then senior biostatistician at QIMR. Louise leads and contributes to a range of projects within public health and cancer research, including leading analyses of the Australian Childhood Cancer Registry. Her methodological work centres on interrupted time series and understanding impact of mis-specified models for statistical inference.

Cheng-Han (Kerwin) Lin, Sanofi

Kerwin is a Senior Clinical Biostatistician in Sanofi's Translational Science Hub (TSH), based in Brisbane. He contributes to the statistical and operational aspects of vaccine development, focusing on study design and strategic planning in accordance with ICH GCP guidelines. He also supports data management to ensure clinical data integrity and quality throughout the trial lifecycle. Kerwin has gained comprehensive experience across both contract research organizations (CROs)—including Novotech and Avance—and the sponsor side (Sanofi). His CRO background specialized in operational implementation and trial execution, while his current sponsor-side role emphasizes design and strategic development phases. He holds a Master of Science in Public Health from National Yang Ming University in Taiwan.

David Bridge, Australian Bureau of Statistics

David is the Assistant Director with the Australian Bureau of Statistics Health and Vital statistics division, the national statistical agency responsible for the Census and for the official statistics that inform government policy. Within this role, he contributes to analysis and production of national health and population statistics.

Key Learnings

• Understanding the different career pathways available to statisticians, in academia, industry and government
• Learning how early stages of a statistics career can look like and how they can evolve over time
• Hearing about the application of statistics in diverse projects