Jared being admitted as a new student of Oxford University at a matriculation ceremony.

From vacation student to Oxford Scholar

When Jared O'Connell started his vacation scholarship with CSIRO Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics he never would have imagined it would lead him to a job with CSIRO and then a PhD at Oxford University, England.

• 30 September 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011

Jared started work in the summer of 2003–04 on a project with Dr Quanxi Shao in Perth, Western Australia, investigating a novel statistical distribution for modelling extreme values for rainfall data.

'I gained experience with real-world data (and all the difficulties that entails), something which you rarely get during an undergraduate degree,' he says.

After his vacation scholarship had finished, Jared returned to university to complete his Honours degree in Applied Statistics.

Just three days after his last exam, Jared had a role with CSIRO's Mathematics for Mapping and Monitoring group in Perth, under the supervision of Dr Peter Caccetta.

After four years at CSIRO Jared decided he wanted to work abroad so he took on a role as a Research Statistician for the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Aarhus University in Denmark.

Jared worked in Denmark for two years before becoming a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) Scholar at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Oxford University.

Jared is doing his PhD in the area of statistical genetics/bioinformatics with applications to human health.

On his journey Jared has had many experiences and has some advice for students who wish to take their study overseas after a CSIRO vacation scholarship.

'If you wish to study a postgraduate degree abroad, plan well ahead (over a year in advance). Take time to talk to other researchers at CSIRO about their work to find out if anything interests you.'

Find out more about Summer Scholarships for students of Mathematics, Informatics and Statistics.