MSc Alumni Profiles

Maria Jose Herrera - MSc in Applied Social Data Sciece 2019/20

Above all else, I treasure my cohort the most! The classes were great and well-taught, but learning to teach ourselves -- and each other -- about programming, stats, and data science has been the most useful skill.

I am currently a Data Analyst in the Organization Analytics team (that sits within Engineering) at DeepMind. I'm in the early days of my role, but I can definitely say that core programming skills and critical thinking skills developed through coursework and my dissertation equipped me to get this role.

What would you tell someone who is thinking about studying at the LSE Department of Methodology?

Do it! Come in with a ton of curiosity and use the programme to help teach you how to answer your own questions. The skills gained and people met along the way are well worth it.

Contact Maria Jose via email.

Benjamín Venegas - MSc in Social Research Methods 2019/20

It was a wonderful experience. I reinforced my knowledge of public policy. However, the main aspect of the experience was to share with people with different background.

Study at the LSE Department of Methodology is a great experience. I think the main advantage is that the students have the opportunity to interact with the professors easily.

Contact Benajmín via email.

Victoria Leon - MSc in Social Research Methods 2019/20

Contact Victoria via email.

Camila Salazar Mayorga - MSc in Applied Social Data Science 2018/9

With the Msc in Applied Social Data Science I was able to gain technical knowledge to work with data, improve my programming skills and learn about data science quantitive methods to approach diverse social science questions. Coming from an Economics and Communications background, I really enjoyed the project and problem solving approach of all the courses and the flexibility to apply the technical data skills to diverse topics.

I am currently the Lead Data Analyst at Open Contracting Partnership, a global organization working with governments, businesses, civil society, and technologists to open up and transform government contracting worldwide. I perform statistical analysis of procurement data to demonstrate how it can be used to monitor performance on competition, fiscal savings, corruption, and improvements in public service delivery. I also support data users, researchers and partners and deliver trainings on how to use open procurement data effectively. On my everyday tasks I use the different skills I learned in the programme, from programming in R, python, using PostgreSQL to think about research methodologies and data science methods to answer relevant questions.

This is the perfect programme for someone interested in learning about data science with an applied angle in social science. The Department of Methodology and LSE also provide great learning and networking opportunities to learn from top professionals and academics.

Contact Camila via email.

Michel Dilmanian - MSc in Applied Social Data Science 2018/9

I joined the programme after having spent four years working as an economist in the financial sector -- I felt the need to retrain myself in the most recent data-science methods, but with an eye to applying them within a thoughtful and well-designed research agenda. This is exactly what the MSc in Applied Social Data Science enabled me to do. Besides building valuable skills in natural language processing and machine learning, I was also very appreciative of the close-knit nature of the department, which allowed us to directly learn from, and collaborate with, our professors.

I now work in macro research and investment strategy at BlackRock. The data-driven nature of our work means that I often find myself cleaning data and modelling in Python or R. The MSc provided me with a very solid foundation in both of these languages. I've also built extensive skills in natural language processing as part of my coursework and dissertation (under the supervision of Pablo Barberá), which will undoubtedly prove useful over time.

The MSc in Applied Social Data Science provides the opportunity to build cutting-edge data-science skills from the ground up, all within a unique interdisciplinary setting. Whether you are a quantitative social scientist or an aspiring data scientist, the programme will help you build a strong foundation for work in both academia and industry.

Contact Michel via email.

Diego Alburez-Gutierrez - MSc in Social Research Methods 2013/4

The Department provided me with a solid foundation in social science research design with a good overview of qualitative and quantitative skills in a supportive environment. I cherished the opportunity to work closely with world-renowned academics and incredibly talented students from around the world.

After my MSc in the department, I went on to obtain a PhD in Demography and Population Studies at the LSE Social Policy Department. I am currently employed as a Research Scientist and Research Area Chair (Aging and Generational Processes) at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Lab of Digital and Computational Demography).

The Department offers a unique setting to learn about methods and how to apply them to real-world research. The skills you'll learn are useful for academia, the charity sector, and the industry!

Contact Diego via email.

Erdenechimeg Ulziisuren - MSc in Social Research Methods 2016/17

I liked the Department - it was like a family. I honed my technical research skills of statistical software programs and survey and research design.

Upon my graduation, I returned to my country Mongolia and started my own research firm named Cognos International LLC in 2017. It has been great. I have been awarded with several international and national research and evaluation bidding. Skills and knowledge I attained at LSE have been definitely great asset for my work.

Joe Strong - MSc in Social Research Methods 2017/18

I came to the Department of Methodology as part of my Economic and Social Research Council funded PhD. The MSc in Social Research Methods provided an opportunity for me to focus on the different methods that are used in the social sciences through a wide-ranging and diverse set of course options.

Coming from a qualitative background, it gave me the chance to start from scratch and build my quantitative skills through their core and additional courses. I was able to put these into practice with my dissertation under the supervision of Flora Cornish and the support of Jouni Kuha. (I’m also finally able to read quantitative papers and engage with their methodology, which has been an invaluable new skill!).

Currently, I am working on my PhD in Demography in the LSE Department of Social Policy, focusing on the relationships between men, masculinities and emergency contraception and abortion in Ghana. In pursuing a mixed methods research design, involving collecting data through a survey, focus groups and interviews, the skills I honed during my MSc have given me an incredible methodological foundation from which to build. In addition, I have worked as a researcher on projects and papers relating to abortion and healthcare services across the world, and recently finished working as an Occasional Research Fellow on a funding bid from the Department of International Development.

If you want to know more about my experience and the work I am doing now, please don’t hesitate to contact me via email.

Daniel Jeong - MSc in Social Research Methods 2013/4

Currently, I am a User Experience Research within Facebook’s Community Integrity team, which aims to protect people from negative experiences on the platform. My work addresses some complex topics such as security and misinformation. I use various research methods to identify user needs and then work with cross-functional partners (e.g., product managers, designers, engineers, data scientists) to transform our products. These recommendations ultimately serve to improve the experiences of users across the Facebook suite of products (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger WhatsApp, etc.).

Facebook’s Research team comprises individuals with academic and applied backgrounds, such as social psychology, sociology, human factors and human-computer interaction. The MSc in Social Research Methods taught me how to design meaningful research projects and measure abstract concepts and variables. At the same time, I refined my abilities to conduct a wide range of research, including surveys, focus groups and ethnography.

Tze Ming Mok - MSc in Social Research Methods 2013/14

The MSc in Social Research Methods has equipped me very well for both an applied research career and for academia. In that sense, it’s a great dual-purpose MSc, like one of those reversible travel tops. I found out about the MSc when a friend on the programme smuggled me into the Peacock Theatre one lunchtime, knowing I was getting bored of my career in NGO communications. After watching Jouni Kuha explain boxplots, I was hooked.

I was a returning student and at least a decade older than much of my cohort when I enrolled for the MSc. I also had not done maths since 5th form. But the attitude to quantitative beginners on the course was accepting and gentle, and the collegiality of the small department was strong. Crucially, there was a mutual respect across the methodological specialties amongst the faculty, and the MSc required students to study methods across the full ‘toolbox’ of methods – both quantitative and qualitative. After I completed the MSc, this proved very helpful in the job market, and I worked as a researcher at NatCen Social Research, evaluating government welfare programmes using both quantitative and qualitative methods.

I then started a PhD in the LSE Social Policy Department on ethnic enumeration methods from a critical race perspective, which I completed in three years because the MSc Social Research Methods makes you really good at designing research proposals that you can complete in three years.

I now live back in my home country of New Zealand, where I am an Associate Investigator with Te Pūnaha Matatini, a Centre of Research Excellence focusing on complex systems and the intersection of STEM, society, and indigenous knowledge. I am also an applied researcher for the New Zealand thinktank The Workshop, which specialises in evidence-based methods of communication to support progressive social policy in the digital era. I currently serve on the council of the Population Association of New Zealand. My favourite plots are still boxplots.