Rifat - Personal Statement NCSU

Md Monjurul Islam Rifat rifat.1367@gmail.
com
The “Theory of Evolution” is arguably the most significant theory in biological sciences. It
unifies all the species in the living world. My interest in working in the area of evolutionary
biology began when I read the history of population genetics, which was born reconciling Darwin’s
principles of natural selection and Mendel’s laws of heredity. Being a statistician, I was amazed by
the fact that Sir Ronald Fisher, father of Statistics, played an essential role in setting the founding
stone of this field.
As my undergraduate major was Statistics, I took several theoretical, applied and computational
courses in the same. However, I had the first practical experience in my senior year when I engaged
in a group project titled “A Study on Child Health and Infant Mortality Modeling.” In
this study, we highlighted the causes of infant mortality as well as different socio-economic factors
that influence child health. This project also emphasized some possible policies, explanations, and
directions to reduce infant mortality. This experience made me interested in getting involved in
research and thus pursuing graduate education.
In Fall 2016, I worked on a group project named “Multiple Regression Analysis for the
Prediction of Brown Planthopper Presence on Rice Crops.” We aimed to discover the
characteristics of rice plants that attract insects. By identifying which characteristics affect insect
presence, rice biologists and farmers can develop selective breeding programs to create more robust
crops. Following semester, in spring 2017, I worked on another group project named “An Appli-
cation of Factorial Designs to Short Term Memory Experiments.” This project aimed at
explaining the influence of different factors on short term memory using factorial design. I gained
experience working with real-life data from these two projects. Also, I acquired a strong motivation
to start designing my own experiments.
During my Masters in Mathematics, with Dr. Sungsu Kim, I worked on a paper titled “Diagnos-
tic analysis of a circular-circular regression model using asymmetric and/or bi-modal
circular errors.” We studied a data set containing 38 phases or peak expression times of syn-
chronized circadian-related genes common in heart and liver tissues. Our main objective was to
develop a test statistic to determine the cut off points of the data and identify the extreme values.
In October 2019, our work was published online in the Communications in Statistics: Theory
and Method. I used R in this publication and all the projects mentioned earlier. In this process,
I gathered extensive experience in R.
Going forward, reading articles on evolutionary biology and following the “Smithsonian Human
Origin program,” I became enthusiastic about learning more. In pursuit of that discourse, I
started contacting people specialized in this area. Dr. Jeffrey Jensen of Arizona State Univer-
sity suggested that I study John Wakeley’s “Natural selection and Coalescent Theory” and
Warren Ewen’s “Mathematical Population Genetics.” Getting some guidance and reading the
books, I developed an intense inclination towards the field of population genetics and phylogenetics.
More specifically, I am interested in working on sexual selection, speciation, hybridization, recom-
bination, adaptation, and gene duplication. In this quest, I have searched most of the renowned
Ph.D. programs in Biology, Bioinformatics, Genetics, Ecology, and Evolution and have explored the
profiles of many faculty members specializing in the areas mentioned above. I concluded that the
current projects of Dr. Caiti Heil and Dr. Gavin Conant at North Carolina State University,
match my research interest very closely.
Dr. Heil focuses on hybridization and recombination, whereas Dr. Conant works on duplication
Page 1
Md Monjurul Islam Rifat rifat.1367@gmail.com
using yeast as a model organism. Many factors have a direct effect on the mutation rate, recombi-
nation rate, hybridization, and duplication. When we try to analyze the effects of multiple factors
simultaneously, difficulties arise. The results are prone to be affected by extraneous factors and
various perturbations. My idea is to use the experience of working with fractional factorial design,
blocking and confounding, and try to mitigate the complexities as much as possible and minimize
the residual errors. Which, I believe, will be helpful to study the evolution of complex traits.
Additionally, exploring the webpage of the NCSU Genetics and Genomics Scholar program, I
am profoundly convinced that this program will provide me a comprehensive knowledge, crucial
training, and practical experience, which eventually will help me to reach my goal. I am confident
that my background in R, Computational Statistics, and Design and Analysis of Experiments can
make me a valuable contributor in experimental evolution research.
In addition, I have two years of practical experience in teaching with an excellent reputation as an
instructor. I was also fortunate to receive recognition from the department as a responsible and
diligent instructor.
My career goal is to stay in academia and engage in the field of population genetics research.
Furthermore, I wish to involve myself in teaching. Therefore, considering my research focus and
future goals, I am highly interested in applying for a position to pursue doctoral-level research
at North Carolina State University. I am confident that given the opportunity, I can contribute
significantly through my eagerness, persistence, and the highest level of professionalism.
Page 2

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Md Monjurul Islam Rifat rifat.1367@gmail.

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