Roland Matsouaka
Doctoral student, Department of Biostatistics
Roland Matsouaka’s long journey to Harvard began in his native country, the Republic of Congo. When civil war broke out in the Republic of Congo and damaged Marien Ngouabi University in Brazzaville, the country’s capital, Roland had to leave his family behind to continue his mathematical studies in Burkina-Faso. After his funding was cut off, he got a scholarship in Benin and studied there for four years before spending a year as a research fellow at the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. With two master’s degrees in hand, and his determination to pursue doctoral training undiminished, Roland moved to the United States in 2003. He learned English, was accepted to HSPH as a master’s student, and has now begun his PhD work at the school. Roland decided upon biostatistics because he wanted to apply his mathematical skills to public health problems: “Malaria is of great concern in my country. People sometimes get the disease two or three times a year. Because they are poor or the clinic is far away, often they seek treatment too late.” In describing his HSPH experience, Roland says, “I find my professors more accessible than they were where I studied in Africa. I can ask them any question.” Eventually Roland hopes to return to Africa to do data analysis for teams studying malaria and HIV.