Hi, my name is

Marta.

I like BIG data. And storytelling.

I am a hard-working data scientist. I have a strong background in human genetics, I am fluent in R programming language, I am extremely fast on the uptake and an avid believer in team-focused and transparent work ethics.

Resume

About Me

I have started my academic career as a biologist, passed briefly through the wonders of neuroscience, and finally statistical (epi)genetics. My PhD was the hardest thing I have ever accomplished, and I am hoping this is the place where I will tell you more about it. Two years ago, I left academia, and, no lie, that has left a big empty space in my life. For two years, I have been delving deeper into the world of R development, and found myself with enough time to even explore my creative writing! Side-note: on the left, you can see an actual MRI of my brain. I feel like you already know me at a deep personal level! Here are a few technologies I've been working with recently:
  • R
  • Rmarkdown
  • JavaScript
  • AWS
  • Unix / Linux
  • GitHub / GitLab CI-CD

Experience

Data Scientist - Scottish Government
Jan 2024 - present
  • Joined the Artificial Intelligence & Data Science Unit.
Senior Data Scientist - QuartzBio
Aug 2021 - Jan 2024
  • Promoted to Senior Data Scientist, Manager, within 1.5 years of employment
  • Primary resource for complex development projects
  • Developed code to automatically detect anomalies in webapp settings and correct them as necessary during auto-deploymen
  • Identify development or process areas in need of improvement, conceive of solutions, implement, document and socialize improvements.
  • Improved and re-structured internal biomarker processing pipelines to allow more flexibility in addressing clients requests
  • Debug & decipher complex errors throughout entire biomarker data management process, including deployment to webapp & UX/UI related errors
  • Develop documentation and data specifications
  • Perform source code validation and application testing within GitLab CI/CD pipelines
  • Lead technical meetings with internal and external stakeholders
  • Communicate daily with project managers to ensure data delivery is timely and compliant
  • Onboard, train and manage direct reports
Research Data Manager - ResearchGate GmbH
Feb 2016 - May 2016
  • Collect, manage, and clean data sets, mainly via Excel
  • Employ new and existing tools to interpret, analyze, and visualize multivariate relationships in data
  • Use system reports and analyses to identify potentially problematic data, make corrections, and determine root cause for data problems from input errors or inadequate field edits, and suggest possible solutions
  • Manage existent user accounts and ensure quality control protocols are in practice

Education

Jan 2018 - Mar 2022
Ph.D in Statistical Genetics
University of Queensland & University of Exeter
  • Awarded QUEX scholarship
  • Design study workflow and analyses streamline
  • Acquire necessary data via different (genetic) data sources - familiar with FTP clients
  • Perform ad-hoc exploratory data visualization - fluent in R, Rmarkdown, Unix, knowledgeable in Python, Jupyter Notebooks
  • Apply univariate and multivariate statistical techniques to large scale (human clinical) data - experienced with high-performance cluster computing
  • Report statistical analyses results in weekly technical meetings in a user-friendly manner - familiar with Tableau, but more experienced in Rmarkdown and Jupyter Notebooks
  • Report results via oral and written communications to the department
  • Highly relevant research output, resulting in several first author and co-authored publications, in top-tier scientific journals (Nature, Genome Biology, PLoS Genetics)
  • Experience with genomic data and public databases, including dbGAP - generated DNA methylation data from an Australian amyotrophic lateral sclerosis case-control cohort and prepared pre- and processed files to upload (phs002068.v1.p1)

Extracurricular Activities

  • Participated in the Australian Pint of Science 2019 event as a science communicator
  • Participated in the 3MT thesis event at the University of Queensland
  • Science Ambassador on behalf of the Institute for Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland
My academic records
Sep 2014 - Jul 2016
MSc in Neuroscience
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & Université de Bordeaux & Charitéuniversitatsmedizin Berlin
GPA: 8.0 out of 10.0
  • Awarded Neurasmus Erasmus Mundus scholarship

Extracurricular Activities

  • Erasmus Mundus Association representative for Neurasmus MSc
    • Organize monthly webinars/workshops for the Neurasmus students/alumni
    • Developed Neurasmus student/alumni database - familiar with SQL, phpMyAdmin and WordPress
My academic records
Sep 2010 - Jul 2013
BSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics
University of Lisbon
GPA: 16.0 out of 20.0

Extracurricular Activities

My academic records

Projects

Udacity's Data Science Nanodegree
Python Data Science Machine Learning
Udacity's Data Science Nanodegree
Checkout my projects for Udacity's Data Science Nanodegree.
Project 2 - In Progress

Achievements

My publications
A list of all my first and co-authored scientific publications.
PhD thesis
Studying the effects of DNA methylation variation across neurodegenerative disorders.

Get in Touch

My inbox is always open. Whether you have a question or just want to say hi, I’ll try my best to get back to you!
Mail me