Since OPIG began in 2003, 53 students* have managed to escape. But where are these glorious people now? I decided to find out, using my best detective skills (aka LinkedIn, Google and Twitter).
* I’m only including full members who have left the group, as per the former members list on the OPIG website
Where are they?
Firstly, the countries. OPIGlets are mostly still residing in the UK, primarily in the ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford and Cambridge. The US comes in second, followed closely by Germany (Note: one former OPIGlet is in Malta, which is too small to be recognised in Geopandas so just imagine it is shown on the world map below)
What are they doing?
Secondly, what are our alumni up to? The majority of former students work in the drug discovery and development industry, and we also have a large number who have continued to pursue academia in Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, MIT and elsewhere. Research areas include fun buzzwords like artificial intelligence engineering, machine learning, precision medicine, epigenetic and bioethics.
We have a plethora of data scientists, bioinformaticians and software engineers. This includes many variations on similar job titles including Data Chiefs, Leads, Directors, and most excitingly a ‘Data Wizard’. These scientists, engineers and wizard mostly work within industry in drug discovery roles, often at companies with research links to OPIG such as LabGenius, Benevolent AI, Roche, UCB, Exscientia, and Alchemab.
Aside from direct involvement in drug discovery, our alumni working in data science and software can be found in firms providing consulting to the pharmaceutical/healthcare industry, in health tech companies such as medical app development, and within university departments.
Our alumni also include government statisticians, a policy maker, grants organiser and research coordinator. Two professors have founded companies, alongside their academic research. We have two teachers and, surprisingly for Oxford, we have only lost one member to finance, and one to politics.
As I’m entering the last year of my DPhil, this detective work was mostly a networking and job-finding exercise. I think I’ll try for ‘Data Wizard’.
