We’ll be featuring mini-profiles of our new PhD students over the next few weeks. We look forward to welcoming them into our community!
Madeleine Carbonneau
Hello! My name is Madeleine (or Maddy) Carbonneau. I graduated from Harvard in 2020 with my undergraduate degree in applied math. After graduating, I worked for a couple years at Roivant Sciences, a biotech/ pharmatech company in New York. For the last two years, I have been a post- baccalaureate fellow at the Framingham (MA) Heart Study with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute asking questions about epigenetics, lifestyle factors, and biological aging.
Although I left college thinking I wanted to work in business development in the biotech industry, I quickly learned after starting my first job that I did not like being so far away from the research activities of the company. Luckily, my employer gave me the option to transition to more research-oriented roles. Here, I was able to work with powerful datasets to answer interesting questions and I felt much more motivated by my projects.
I started my position at the Framingham Heart Study to do some research in a more-academic environment and prepare for a doctoral program. In my current research, I work with a lot of genetic/multi- omics data and I’m very motivated to research the questions that arise from these data. I am particularly interested in using analytical structures that allow us to understand how genes work in synchrony. Although my research interests remain quite broad, in graduate school, I would like to explore how we can use statistics to better quantify and describe the relationships between genes and how their interrelated (dys)function can cause disease.
Outside of my research, I aim to surround myself with as many dogs as possible. My partner and I have two dogs of our own, Ginger and Sophie, and have fostered several other dogs. When that is not enough dog for me (it rarely is), I volunteer at an animal shelter where I walk and hang out with more dogs. I also enjoy spending time with my family, who lives in the Boston area. Most of all, I love hanging out with their dogs.
Armelle Duston
Hello! My name is Armelle Duston. I am of French origin but I grew up in the US in Lynchburg, Virginia. This past May, I graduated with a BS in Applied Math and Statistics from Colorado School of Mines.
At Mines, I first came across the field of mathematical biology which would eventually lead me to my interest in biostatistics. From the beginning, I was interested in using mathematical tools to better understand and improve human health.
My main research experience in undergrad was in investigating the circadian rhythms of adolescents under the mentorship of Dr. Cecilia Diniz Behn. This work involved some mathematical modeling work with systems of differential equations, but my main project was a statistical analysis of combined datasets leading to a finding about sex differences in the circadian rhythms of adolescents. Outside of research, I also participated in a summer institute in biostatistics (SIBS) at NC State and Duke. From taking a course on spatial statistics, I developed an interest in statistical methods in epidemiology and particularly environmental health.
In my free time, I love to read, travel, and do a variety of outdoor sports including hiking, mountain biking, and rock climbing. I’m excited to see what Boston has to offer, and I am looking forward to meeting everyone!
