Jessica's path from PhD to university lecturer

After completing a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and earning first class honours at the University of Sydney Business School in 2016, Jessica Leung was inspired to study a Doctor of Philosophy (Business) in pursuit of an academic career.

"The ownership of knowledge in my research project within the Honours program was a very powerful intrinsic motivator that drove me to continue with the research path," Jessica says.

Her PhD thesis focused on the intersection between statistical learning and optimisation techniques with applications in FinTech and InsurTech and was completed under the guidance of advisor Associate Professor Dmytro Matsypura in 2021.

She was recognised for her outstanding research with an Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Research from the Statistical Society in 2019. Her studies were also supported by the University of Sydney Postgraduate Research Scholarship and The Paulette Isabel Jones PhD Scholarship.

During her PhD candidature, Jessica had the opportunity to attend multiple academic conferences held in the United States and in Europe. She describes the experience as truly eye-opening in learning how to tallk about her work in different settings on various platforms. Jessica was able to connect with a group of interested stakeholders and future collaborators through these international conferences.

"The PhD is practically an apprenticeship in academia, and the Discipline of Business Analytics has provided a very supportive environment and great culture to nurture our skills and talents in research, teaching, and engagement," Jessica says.

"The research training that I received from the PhD equipped me with the skillset to tackle different types of research problems."

That skillset enabled Jessica to secure her current role as a Lecturer in Business Analytics at Monash University, where her research focuses on applications of convex and combinatorial optimisation and machine learning algorithms.

Jessica advises anyone considering a research degree to begin by looking for prospective PhD supervisors with similar research interests or interesting research methods.

“Choosing a group of compatible supervisors is a good start to a fruitful and rewarding PhD journey,” Jessica says.