Mac Edmondson

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I am currently a Senior Scientist at Merck working in Early Development Statistics within the Biostatistics and Research Decision Sciences (BARDS) department. Within Early Development Statistics, I work in the Translational Oncology group, primarily providing statistical support to help identify, develop, and validate oncology biomarkers that can be used to support Merck’s various oncology programs. In this role, I serve as the lead biomarker statistician for several early- and late-stage oncology programs, helping to develop scientific statistical analysis plans and analyze biomarker and clinical data. I additionally conduct research to develop and validate statistical methods to aid future biomarker projects.

Prior to beginning my role at Merck, I completed a Biostatistics PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania. My dissertation research concerned development and application of novel statistical methods for performing distributed regression analysis, intended for use in multi-site observational studies where individual healthcare sites cannot share individual patient data but want to perform combined data analysis.

My mathematics education at Saint Michael’s prepared me very well for both my PhD program and ensuing role at Merck. In addition to the comprehensive introductory statistics curriculum, experience with linear algebra and writing mathematical proofs were especially helpful in learning probability theory and being well-prepared for graduate-level biostatistics coursework. Working as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry, non-technical communication of statistical concepts to multidisciplinary teams is a large part of my current role. The all-encompassing liberal arts education that Saint Michael’s provided has helped tremendously with this, and I am sure it will continue to prove useful as I progress through my career.