Who I Am
I’m Rafael Widjajahakim — a data scientist in training with over a decade of hands-on work in biomedical research and pharmaceutical market research. I’m currently completing my Master of Science in Data Science at Boston University while bridging the gap between clinical domain expertise and modern machine learning.
My path is a bit unconventional: I started in wet-lab research, moved into data-heavy clinical trial work, pivoted to pharma secondary research and analytics, and now I’m focused on building end-to-end data science skills that can make a real difference in health outcomes.
Experience & Background
- Biomedical Research — ~10 years of experience across ophthalmology clinical trials (AREDS), lipid research, and real-world evidence (RWE) studies
- Pharma Market Research — Line-of-therapy analyses, executive summaries, and dashboard reporting for pharmaceutical clients
- Data Science Internship (6 months) — AWS EC2, Snowflake, Python-based data cleaning and pipeline work in a production environment
- Teaching Assistantship / Coursework — Graduate-level modules in statistical modeling, machine learning, and data engineering
Technical Skills
| Category | Tools |
|---|---|
| Languages | Python, R, SQL, SAS |
| ML & Modeling | scikit-learn, pandas, GridSearchCV, cross-validation |
| Stats | Biostatistics, hypothesis testing, regression, survival analysis |
| Visualization | Tableau, PowerBI, ggplot2, matplotlib, seaborn, Adobe Illustrator |
| Cloud & Data | AWS EC2, Snowflake, Git, Jupyter, VS Code |
| Formats & Pipelines | ETL workflows, feature engineering, model evaluation |
Education
Boston University — MS in Data Science (in progress)
Relevant coursework: Machine Learning, Biostatistics, Statistical Programming, Data Engineering
What I’m Working On
- Building a stronger portfolio of end-to-end ML projects in Python
- Deepening expertise in gradient boosting, hyperparameter optimization (Optuna), and NLP
- Exploring real-world healthcare datasets for predictive modeling
- Improving data storytelling through clean, precise visualizations
Beyond Data
I’m a photography and videography hobbyist with a soft spot for Fuji cameras and drone footage of nature. I enjoy hiking, specialty coffee, and the ongoing challenge of getting through my ever-growing backlog of unedited RAW files.
Feel free to reach out — rafaelwh@bu.edu · LinkedIn · GitHub