Dr Shila Ghazanfar
AMSI BioInfoSummer 2013
What is your role in the Mathematical Sciences?
I am a Lecturer and ARC DECRA Fellow in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sydney. I am also affiliated with the Charles Perkins Centre, a multi-disciplinary institute focusing on easing the burden of chronic disease, the Kolling Institute, and a research leader in the Sydney Precision Data Science Centre at the University of Sydney. I received a Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) (Honours I) from the University of Sydney with majors in statistics and pure mathematics, before completing a PhD in Statistical Bioinformatics in 2018.
In 2022 I completed my postdoctoral training as a Royal Society Newton International Fellow at the University of Cambridge and European Molecular Biology Laboratory-European Bioinformatics Institute. I am a biomedical data scientist, and I focus on using my foundation in applied statistics to develop new analytics, methodologies and software to help us understand complex datasets arising from cutting-edge biotechnologies such as molecule-resolved spatial transcriptomics and single-cell sequencing. I lead a team of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers embarking on methodological and collaborative projects.
As an AMSI alumnus, how did participating in AMSI programs support your career trajectory?
I attended my first AMSI BioInfoSummer in Adelaide in December 2013, I was in the first year of my PhD in statistical bioinformatics and I was one of the recipients of a Student Travel Award. As a student with no background in biology, BioInfoSummer was the perfect venue to learn more about the breadth of topics in modern bioinformatics and biomedical data science.
Since being a participant back in 2013, I have had the absolute privilege of contributing as a workshop trainer in Sydney in 2015, a national speaker in Perth in 2018, an international speaker in Sydney in 2019, and most recently a national speaker in Melbourne in 2022. BioInfoSummer is a brilliant event and I love that I have had the opportunity to share my skills and knowledge with as much enthusiasm as my instructors did back in 2013!
As you are currently working in in the evolving field of statistical bioinformatics which looks for genetic relationships that might give new insights into diseases like cancer, what has been one of the most rewarding parts of your job in the mathematical sciences?
The most rewarding aspect of my job is to see the use of applied statistics and statistical machine learning to aid in discovery. The fact that we can take seemingly indecipherable mountains of data and distil it to identify relevant biomolecules in a range of biological and disease settings continues to amaze and inspire me.
The variety of disease applications for statistical bioinformatics means that, as a discipline, statistical bioinformatics has the capacity to provide a huge impact to many areas, such as cancer. In terms of day-to-day activities, one of my favourite things about being a statistical bioinformatician and biomedical data scientist is that I am always learning new aspects of biomedicine from my brilliant national and international collaborators.
The AMSI Year 12 report card mentions that enrolments in elementary level mathematics (Essential and General Mathematics) are declining. In 2022, less than half of the year 12 graduating cohort (45.8%) studied an elementary level mathematics subject. What are some words of advice you would give high school students to encourage them to continue mathematics study?
I think this trend is alarming. My fear is that the students who are not taking higher levels of mathematics – who otherwise would have in previous years – may belong to historically underrepresented groups, and may entrench societal disadvantage, especially in today’s digital and data age where mathematics foundations are so critical.
My advice to high school students who are considering their options for mathematics study is to give yourself more credit and know that you can rise to the occasion. I was extremely fortunate to have a Year 10 Maths teacher who heavily encouraged me to pursue Extension 1 maths, and I distinctly remember telling him that I didn’t think I was good enough, to which he replied, “just try it, and see how you go”. I ended up doing very well, and oddly enough had the same conversation when deciding to pursue Extension 2 maths, and again when deciding on University subjects. I recognise the immense privilege in having a teacher push me to higher and more mathematics and hope that students reading this feel empowered to push themselves!
What do you hope for the future of mathematics in a tech-evolving society?
I hope that some of the main principles of mathematics: systematic and critical thinking, logical argument, and identifying structure and patterns, continue to help us navigate a world where there is ever-more data being generated and used. In my work I use a huge amount of data to try to identify biological patterns, but I am keenly aware that there can be major biases in the data, which can lead to incorrect conclusions. I hope for fairness and increased understanding of data provenance to be a major factor in decision-making, especially as important decisions that impact us as a society are being informed by big and complex data.
What are your hobbies or interests outside of work?
I love to cook! When I lived in Cambridge, I started to become quite homesick, especially for foods from my Afghan heritage. So, like many, I turned to long Skype calls with my family (and Youtube) to learn the recipes for my favourite dishes.
This interview is part of our AMSI alumni Series. If you’re an AMSI alumni, we would love to hear what you have been up to! Tag us in your posts on LinkedIn and X @DiscoverAMSI so we can share your achievements. Please contact us if you would like to be featured in our monthly newsletter: media@amsi.org.au.
