Join the HDR UK Alumni Network

About us

Our Alumni Network is developing into a lively forum to meet your peers, find collaborators, get advice and learn about career opportunities.

The LinkedIn-based group aims to provide a free, member-led single network where they can share ideas, opportunities and information. Anyone who has been part of one of HDR UK’s internships, post-graduate degrees, or fellowships is eligible to join – along with early career health data scientists who are part of our research community.

Exclusive benefits of membership of the alumni network include:

• Networking events across the country
• Mentor-mentee matching scheme
• Career fairs and connections with start-ups and SMEs
• Hands-on training events (including hackathons)
• Presentation and feedback opportunities for current students
• Career development opportunities
• Regular updates from HDRUK regarding training, job and networking opportunities

The network is co-ordinated by James Godwin, an HDR UK Master’s Programme graduate, and Phinehas Arkorful, who was part of the 2022 Black Internship Programme.

“Health data science and HDR UK are relatively new in the science world and it would be great if current students, alumni and professionals had a place to come together and build networks – create the sort of community that other areas of science have.” James Godwin, Alumni Network co-ordinator and PhD student at the University of York.

“The Alumni Network is a chance to bring people together to talk and exchange ideas and to get advice. We can achieve a great deal if we create a pool of health data scientists who want to work together.” Phinehas Arkorful, Alumni Network co-ordinator and Teeside University Applied Data Science MSc student.

The hope is that the Alumni Network will become a valuable network linking health data scientists nationally and internationally.

“The opportunity to build networks  and develop collaborations across the UK and internationally is invaluable for the future of  health data science. The Alumni Network has a vital role to play in making that happen,” Sarah Cadman, HDR UK Programme Director – Capacity Building.

Meet some of our amazing alumni

Our alumni are achieving remarkable things – often with established or emerging careers that are pushing back the frontiers of healthcare. We are profiling profiling some of their inspirational stories. The first alumnus we’d like to introduce is HDR UK Fellow Dr Rona Strawbridge – a geneticist who is revealing the connections between physical and psychiatric illness. Read about her here.

We also have Augustina Ugwu, a former healthcare assistant who lost her mother to cervical cancer aged just 45, and is dedicating herself to developing her skills to help in the drive for better early diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases. Find out about her here.

Then there’s Ben Pitter-Fagan, a former maths teacher who joined our Black Internships programme and has now launched an exciting new career.

Another Black Internships Programme alumnus is Fewa Laleye, who is now undertaking PhD research using clinical data and biological information for research aimed at helping predict which women are at risk of pre-term births.

Kluivert Boakye Duah wanted to work in data science but it was only when he was introduced to the HDR UK Black Internship Programme, he realised that by focusing on healthcare he could make a real contribution to building a better world. He is now taking a PhD.

Kazeem Bello is now an active member of the network after it supported him when he applied for the Black Internship Programme – something he describes as a “turning point” in his life.

And there are our current learners, who are also eligible to join the network, such as Claire Coffey who is part of the HDRUK-Turing Wellcome PhD programme. She is among the emerging generation of health data scientists who are already helping transform healthcare for the better.