In our Alumni Career Spotlight series, you will meet some of our alumni and learn about the important work they are doing to create a healthier nation and world.
Nate Peters
Employer: Roche Diagnostics
Current position: Clinical Data Scientist
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Degree(s): Bachelor of Science, Health Data Science, IUPUI, 2022
Why did you choose your major/program?
When I first started at IUPUI, I was majoring in mathematics, but I quickly hit a point where I did not know what I wanted to do with that degree after graduation. While I still enjoyed math, it just did not quite feel right. Then, I met with a career advisor, and after asking many questions to find out more about my interests, she told me about the health data science program.
I had never heard of it, but after looking into it more, it felt like the path for me. I have always had an interest in public health and mathematics/statistics, so finding a program that provided both was perfect. Additionally, I would be challenged and learn many new things, such as computer programming, and that made me excited because I knew I would always be learning something new. I also knew that the program would give me endless opportunities, as the content could apply to many different fields and industries.
Do you have any research interests?
During my undergraduate career, I was able to participate in some research while I was an intern at the Regenstrief Institute, which opened my eyes to the possibilities in public health research. However, at this time, I do not have any specific research interests, but I love my job at Roche, as I get to play a role in a wide range of important research studies there.
Briefly describe your career path.
During undergrad, I had two internships at the Regenstrief Institute, where I got to work with Dr. Shelley Johns (from August 2020-May 2022) and Dr. Brian Dixon (from May 2021-May 2022) in various roles, such as working with qualitative data for a study, transcribing interviews, programming an automated report with COVID-19 data in R, and creating weekly COVID-19 reports that were sent to multiple health departments across the state of Indiana. I also had an internship at IU Health from October 2021 to May 2022, where I worked with Josh Sadowski and the infection prevention team as a data analyst intern.
Shortly after graduation in May of 2022, I started my current job as a clinical data scientist at Roche Diagnostics. I am only a few months in, but I have loved my time there so far and am excited to see what the future holds for me at Roche!
Describe what an average day for you might be like.
Since I am still fairly new, my average day probably looks a little different than it will in a few months. Right now, I typically start my work day around 8 a.m. and end a little after 4 p.m. I often have a meeting or two each day, usually in the morning because I have coworkers who live in Germany, so they are six hours ahead of us in Indianapolis.
At other times throughout the day, I read documents to learn about new topics I need to know for future work/studies, do trainings to develop my skills and get familiarized with everything at Roche, and program in R or read R code from others to prepare myself for tasks that I will do in the future.
While my time has mostly been taken up by doing different trainings or learning different topics so far, in the future, an average day will consist of a few meetings each day still, but I will also get to perform different tasks for clinical studies, such as data management tasks in various database systems or clinical data scientist tasks, like doing data checks, creating analysis data sets, or statistical programming, in R.
What advice would you give your college self about pursuing your current career path or industry?
I would tell my college self that it is okay to not know/understand everything right away. In school, I would spend a lot of time trying to understand every little detail and get frustrated when I could not fully understand things because I thought it meant I would not be able to get or keep a job in the future. That thinking seems crazy now, as I have not been expected to know everything or understand everything right away. We are all learning or doing something new pretty much each day at work, and sometimes it takes time to fully grasp it.
Also, start networking as soon as you can, whether you reach out to professors or connect with others in your field on LinkedIn. I was lucky enough to find my job through networking, but it can also help you to just get to know your desired profession more from real people in that field.
What is a lesson learned at FSPH that you have been able to apply to your career?
While not about specific content (although I have used multiple R programming skills in my job that I learned in class), a lesson I learned at FSPH that I have been able to apply to my career is that asking questions is not a bad thing; to truly understand things or learn something new, being curious and asking questions is vital. I learned that lesson through my public health and health data science courses, as questions and curiosity about topics were always welcomed and encouraged, and it also helped me get to know my professors better.
This lesson has helped me a lot in my job, especially since I am so new and have a lot to learn. I used to be afraid to ask questions in school because I thought it meant I was failing or behind, but now I see asking questions as more of a strength because it shows you are interested in learning more or understanding better so that your work can improve.
What is the most significant thing that’s happened to you since graduating?
The most significant thing that has happened to me since graduating has definitely been starting my first real job. Aside from work, I have not had anything happen that is too significant in the past few months, but I have gotten back into my hobbies of reading and running more, so I have been able to relax quite a bit.
What’s next for you?
In the future, I plan to go to graduate school to get a master’s degree, most likely in biostatistics, to gain more knowledge that I could use in my job at Roche. However, I plan to wait a few years to gain some real-world experience while working before I start that. So for now, I am just focused on enjoying my new job and learning as much as I can.
What is your favorite IUPUI/FSPH memory?
My favorite memories at IUPUI/FSPH were my classes with Dr. Fadel. They were memorable for many reasons. For one, he is a great professor and wants everyone to succeed. He always welcomes questions, whether it is about course content or related to careers, and helps students in any way he can. Those classes were also the most interesting to me, as they taught topics I would need for my career, some of which I have used in my job already.
Additionally, those classes were almost always pretty small, so it felt more personal and comfortable. I am a big introvert, so small classes seemed a little intimidating at first because I was worried I would have to answer questions a lot or get called on often. However, I quickly got comfortable talking more and was able to enhance my learning because I was not afraid to ask questions to clarify topics.
I think this point is what easily made Dr. Fadel’s courses my favorite memories because it helped get me outside of my bubble and made me more comfortable talking in other classes. It has also helped me immensely in my job because I am not afraid to speak up or ask questions, and I am not sure that would be the case if I had not taken those courses.
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