Zhengzheng Zhang studied for a PhD in Statistics at the University of Leeds

Zhengzheng Zhang

Where are you from and what are you studying?

I am originally from Beijing and I did my undergraduate studies and masters degree in York and then I came to Leeds to do my four year PhD.

I chose Leeds because it was good in bio-formatics and statistics and I was interested in that area.

What career would you like to pursue?

I would like to be a computational statistician and combine computational work with statistics.

I have actually got a one year post in Bristol as a Research Assistant and so I will pursue another job after that. I would like to stay in academia. 

What led you to do statistics?

I think that statistics is quite useful in many ways and it is applicable to many areas. So you can get involved in many areas.

What were the highlights of studying in Leeds and what were the hardest parts?

There were a lot of foreign people around me and so I made a lot of friends - it was a nice community.

Leeds is a great city, you can buy everything you need here.

Every year you can go to the German Christmas market which is nice.

The bits which were hardest were meeting the deadlines, so you need discipline for that. I would definitely recommend studying here to colleagues in Beijing.