Derek Li, M.S., is a biostatistician in the UF Health Cancer Center’s Biostatistics & Computational Biology Shared Resource, which fulfills an essential scientific component for all cancer research projects, ensuring accuracy and reliability.
Q: What is your hometown?
A: Although I was born in Toronto, Canada, I have been living in Gainesville for over 20 years.
Q: Describe your educational and professional background.
A: I graduated from UF with a bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in French. I then joined Teach for America and worked as a first-grade public school teacher for Chicago Public Schools in a low-income community. When the pandemic arrived, I started studying data science. I earned my master’s degree back at UF. Since then, I have been working as a staff-level biostatistician at the UF Health Cancer Center.
Q: How did you get into your current career path and how many years have you been in the role?
A: I have over three years of experience in my current position. After earning my master’s degree, I wanted to find a field that brought together my technical experiences and the ability to do research in health care. As I discovered the field of biostatistics, I contacted Ji-Hyun Lee, DrPH, to learn more.
Q: What is a typical day like in your job?
A: I have three screens. One is dedicated to emails/web browsing, another is dedicated to programming, and the last one is dedicated to my folders, files and calendar. Every day consists of me using all three screens to communicate with PIs, write code for analysis (a lot of code), and organize my work and schedule.
Q: What is the most rewarding part of working for the UF Health Cancer Center?
A: There are many things: knowing that each row of an Excel sheet represents a patient’s story, getting to interact and learn from my awesome coworkers and working under the best faculty team I can ask for. Personally, I honestly find it incredibly rewarding when someone we are working tightly with says “thank you.” I think it is important to recognize that many of us are working on 10+ different things with tight deadlines. Taking a second to appreciate someone’s efforts can go a long way.
Q: How do you keep your skills current and continue to learn and grow?
A: Every project is unique, so I have to tackle each one differently. For example, sometimes we need to use a different or new statistical technique to analyze a dataset due to its idiosyncrasies. Other times, I need to find new packages to better streamline my work. All of this requires me to keep my skillset sharp and up to date.
Q: Describe how you would spend your ideal day off from work.
A: I would probably clean the house, go grocery shopping and cook, spend time with my fiancé and cats, and end my day with pickleball.
Q: How have your experiences at the UF Health Cancer Center prepared you for the next steps in your academic journey?
A: The exposure I have to a variety of projects is incredible. I believe this range will help me become versatile and prepared as I go forward in my academic journey.
