Meet a Data Scientist: Diya Das

14 November 2022

BY STELLA MIN

On October 31, 2022, I had the privilege of interviewing CDN member Dr. Diya Das. In addition to sharing information about her background and current interests, Dr. Das shared insights into what it is like to be a data manager at Genentech and helpful tips for landing a job (hint: networking).

Background

Diya Das earned her Bachelor's in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and went on to earn her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley from the lab of John Ngai, where she studied the olfactory epithelium, a tissue responsible for our sense of smell. She was a graduate and postdoctoral fellow at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science.

As a postdoc, Dr. Das made several important networking connections by attending and leading workshops and organizing working groups for early-career data scientists. She emphasized the importance of connections like these in facilitating opportunities. For example, one of these networking events hosted a session about data management and was moderated by someone who worked in the department where she was eventually hired.

Current Role

Upon completing her postdoc, Dr. Das joined a data management team at Genentech. Her responsibilities include leading her team through the process of acquiring biomarker data for research and development activities in clinical trials and research collaborations, and supporting data reuse to rapidly advance biomarker development.

Dr. Das’ training as a graduate student and postdoc continues to inform her current role, especially the process of collecting, managing, and standardizing data to increase its accessibility to different researchers. She is drawn to this work because she enjoys the logistics of data management, which includes thoughtful planning and partnering with different teams across the company as well as external collaborators.

Dr. Das enjoys her work so much that she is pursuing an MBA at the University of California Berkeley's Haas School of Business to improve the effectiveness of her team’s activities.

Outside of Work

Dr. Das draws on her knowledge and experience outside of work to shape programming for ADSA’s Career Development Network as a member of the CDN Steering Committee. In addition to community building, Dr. Das enjoys cooking and collecting kitchen appliances. She likes to unwind by watching TV shows like NCIS and any and all home improvement series.

How to connect:

Check out Dr. Das’s profile in the CDN Member Directory which shares links to her website and LinkedIn and Github profiles. One project she would like to invite others to contribute to is a Python-based script to parse transaction histories for commute reimbursements. Parsing tables in PDFs is her new nemesis.