Intro

I like to say I’m standing where data science, official statistics, policy, and development all overlap. My fascination with numbers, problem-solving, and global issues has taken me from research labs in the Netherlands and China to bustling government offices in Ghana. Travel has always been important to me: in 2017, I had the unforgettable opportunity to hitchhike from the southern tip of Argentina to the northernmost point of Alaska. And just last year, I set up my “office” in the front seat of a 30-year-old Land Rover, spending eight months roaming through Africa in that faithful (if occasionally stubborn) vehicle.

Journey

My path to becoming a data scientist hasn’t been a straight line, but—like my travels—it’s always been about the journey rather than the destination. I started off at Leiden University, studying International Relations and learning how trade partners can nudge undemocratic countries toward democracy. That experience confirmed how politics, policy, and data often mesh together in surprising ways.

Next came a Master of Laws (LL.M.) at the Yenching Academy of Peking University, where I immersed myself in Chinese domestic economic challenges and foreign policy (with a dash of panda diplomacy). Eventually, I returned to the Netherlands to earn my Research Master’s in Methodology and Statistics from Utrecht University. There, I delved into Bayesian analyses, R code development, and machine learning.

After a brief stint at Statistics Netherlands, I moved to Ghana to work for the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS)—first as an ODI fellow and later as their head of Data Science, setting up a new Data Science Unit. In between, I worked with GOPA, UNFPA, and the World Bank on various data-driven projects—from harnessing geospatial analytics for improved policy-making to developing machine learning algorithms for large-scale data matching. When I’m not fixing bugs in code, you’ll find me satisfying my travel bug in countless ways—always exploring new roads, new datasets, and new perspectives.

I Like

in not particular order

• Cats
• Landrovers
• Climbing
• Cartography
• Wine
• Photography
• Kingfishers
• Coffee
• Data visualizations
• Art
• Squash
• Scuba diving

Projects and Other Achievements

• Winner 2023 UN Datathon in categories Vest Overall Team Best Presentation, Best Visuals, Best Africa Team and Best Youth Team -Mentored staff from the Zimbabwe Statistical Office and the Ivory Coast Statistical Office in the application of data science for official statistics, as part of the UK ONS International Data Science Accelerator Programme" in 2022 and 2023
• Started a personal blog during Covid-19 I contribute to when I have time, energy, and the urge to do something creative behind a screen: www.ghanadatastuff.com.
• Winner of the 2020 Bigsurv Data Challenge. With a team of (PhD) students from China, India, and Germany, we won the 2020 BigSurv Data Challenge, using Machine Learning Algorithms to predict travel purposes from crowd-labelled trip data
• Awarded the best delegate at the 2014 BIMUN
• Represented the Netherlands as a delegate at the ASEF/ASEM 2016 conference in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia