Alumni Career Profile - Francesca Gerardi

I think the word that better describes my PhD can be ‘roller-coaster’. Like any other PhD experience, mine was full of ups and downs, but I certainly took the most out of it! What I loved the most about it was the fact that I was able to approach cosmological problems while gaining experience in the field of Machine Learning and statistics. I worked on both gravitational waves science and large-scale structure cosmology, under the supervision of amazing people, who always made me free to express myself and keep on learning.

For sure I grew up a lot! A PhD requires a lot of patience but at the same time, there is nothing like the excitement about your own project working out. I had a lot of fun and, beyond the good moments, there were also bad ones, it’s normal! I think the hardest moment I had was when I changed supervisor in the middle of my PhD, which was quite a shake. But yet, perhaps, it has been the most important moment of it, because of the growth it led me to, as I can now realise. I started my journey with an incredible person, who really showed me how a PhD is not just about research, but also about the people you meet and connections you create. He has been my really first mentor and I still believe that. Readjusting after he left was not easy but I was so lucky to get welcomed by equally amazing people and learn about new things! My supervisors were always very supportive, even when it came to my decision to pause my studies to pursue a Data Science Internship at Google. Looking back, I must say that despite the ups and downs, what I achieved is definitively beyond what I could have ever imagined!

One of the things of my studies I really appreciated were the Data Science skills all my project led to, which allowed me to start my professional path as a Data Scientist in a consulting firm. What attracted me the most to this job was the fact that I will be able to work on different projects and areas, sort of continuing the diverse learning approach I started with my PhD and my internship. There are so many things to learn about!

I think my advice for budding scientists could be to acknowledge all the moments of their research, either good or bad, and let them grow the best version of yourself!