Statistical Profession: Academic vs Industry

Dr. Wei Liu

A statistical career in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry as well as regulatory agencies, especially the FDA, is very different from that of academia.  Areas and functions of the differences are discussed.

Biography: I received a Master of Science in probability from Yale and earned a Ph.D. in Statistics at UCSB in 1992.  After that I joined the pharmaceutical industry.  I have worked in the Biostatistics area for 32 year.  I started as a SAS programmer while I was working on my Ph.D.  In this 32 years,  I have worked for 8 different companies and have had positions of Statistical Programmer,  Biostatistician, Sr. Biostatistician, Principal Biostatistician, Principal II Biostatistician, Associate Director, Director, Sr Director.  And my current position is VP of THV Biometrics at Edwards Lifesciences.