Hassan Sadiq teaches (mathematical) statistics to undergraduate students. His responsibilities also include supervising postgraduate students on topics from various fields of applied statistics. However, his primary research interest is in phylogenetic analyses, particularly with respect to natural selection inference. He aims to close the gap between traditional population genomic methodologies and the modern phylogenetic modelling techniques. His objective is to continuously develop statistical evolutionary models that facilitate effective and efficient selection inferences from genetic sequences, through creative interdisciplinary concepts. Consequent models are expected to be useful for understanding the evolution of pathogens such as HIV and SARS-CoV-2.

He has received accolades for his teaching and research excellence. He was recognised at the 2022 first-year achievement awards at Stellenbosch University. The coveted honour is bestowed on a lecturer with the biggest impact on fresh undergraduate students from the preceding academic year, as nominated by the top achieving candidates. Prior to joining SU, Hassan worked at the University of Cape Town (UCT) for almost a decade, in various teaching and research assistant positions. In 2017, he was granted a Young Investigator scholarship to present at the HIV Dynamics & Evolution Conference in Scotland. He also received a NRF Innovation Doctoral Scholarship in 2016. He won the South African Statistical Association’s first and second student prizes for his honours and masters research outputs in 2012 and 2015 respectively.

Hassan is currently enrolled for a PhD in Bioinformatics at UCT. His thesis is co-supervised by Prof Ben Murrell of the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. He earned a MSc in Advanced Analytics and Decision Sciences from the same institution. He passed his dissertation with distinction and the work led to the well cited FADE selection inference model available on Datamonkey, the popular online platform. He seeks exciting opportunities to enrich his phylogenetic analyses skill set and to grow his scientific research collaboration network. He is open to innovative applications of statistical techniques to genetic sequences in general. In addition, he has an insatiable appetite to encourage and empower prospective scholars to pursue careers in academic research.

Position:    Lecturer

Affiliation: Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science, Stellenbosch University (SU)

Contact:     [email protected]