Starting a new adventure!

Hello dear readers, I have some exciting news about myself and my future which I am eager to communicate on this blog. I know that it is not exactly the most interesting news for everybody but I have recently joined a new research team in the Department of methodology and statistics at Maastricht University, in the Netherlands.

I must say, it was not easy for me to leave UCL, where I have studied and obtained my PhD degree and spent quite a few years of my life. I am glad that during this time I met so many fantastic people and colleagues from whom I have leared so much and which I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart. I must say thank you to all my previous PhD supervisors, namely Gianluca Baio, Alexina J. Mason and Rachael Hunter, who were incredibly supportive throughout my entire PhD and with whom I also collaborated during my experience as a research fellow at the department of statistical sciences and PCPH. Particularly during my first post-doc position, I came to know so many colleagues and share so many ideas, which became an essential part of my academic activity and personal growth. Among others, special thanks are also due to my colleagues and friends from the HEART team at PCPH with whom I am still collaborating on some interesting research projects.

Although both my personal and working experience at UCL were amazing, after almost 4 years of PhD and 2 years as a reasearch fellow, I felt that it was time for a change in my life. London can be a quite stressfull city to live in and I wanted to see if I could take some new opportunity to enhance my personal growth by taking a new perspective. This is why I decided to accept a new position as assistant professor in statistics at UM, which I have officially joined a few days ago. During my interview for the position, I was really intrigued by the prospect of this job in terms of both increasing my teaching experience at the university level as well as obtaining more independence in regard to the research topics I would like to explore. Don’t get me wrong, I will still work on stats methods for CEA as this will still be the main focus of my research activity for the next years to come. I love it so much! However, it will also be exciting to see how I can use the experience and knowledge acquired at UCL to contribute (and hopefully improve) the current approach in CEA in the Netherlands.

I already know that, especially at the beginning, it will not be easy. From studying a new language (yes it something that I would like to do!), to getting acquainted with the new place and rules, the new teaching duties, new colleagues, etc… There is much to learn and to do and I am really excited to see where this new adventure will lead me in a few months/years from now. In the meantime I have to do my best to adapt this big change in my life. My new colleagues at the stats department have been very nice to welcome me during these difficult times where interaction with people must be limited to avoid the spread of the virus. I hope this situation will change in the next years and that we can gradually go back to “normality”, if you want to call it that way.

To conclude, I would still thank all the people who have supported me during these exiciting but also quite challenging times, first among all my parents to whom my unconditional love goes.

I will try to post my future updates in a regular way on my website but, especially at the beginning, I will probably need some time to adapt to the new changes and I will be quite busy. I still hope to continue my on-going collaborations with all my previous colleagues from UCL and the UK while also being able to meet new people and start new relationships here in Maastricht and the Netherlands.

Thank you and see you soon ! Dank u en tot ziens!