HAMDAN AZHAR
New York, NY
hamdan at prismoji dot com
 
Professional and Research Experience
Prismoji, New York, NY
Founder (Aug. 2016 – present)

• Building a freelance data journalism practice focused on politics, culture, and society

• Advising media companies on analytics and data science best practices

 
Facebook, New York, NY
Data Scientist, Ads Research (Jan. 2014 – Apr. 2016)

• Led cross channel lift measurement research to quantify the incremental impact of Facebook ads on consumer search traffic (presented white paper at Search Insider Summit in Dec 2015)
• Designed large scale field experiments to measure the value of matching personalized creative to audience segments (jointly with the Wharton Future of Advertising program)
• Served as a data science point of contact for complex internal audits to guide business strategy and inform XFN teams (focusing on video ads and auction optimization)

• Piloted video creative best practices research that led to the "3 second audition" narrative

 
Public Appeal, New York, NY
Partner (Mar. 2013 – Dec. 2013)

• Led statistical arm of a quantitative political consulting firm

• Developed algorithmic approaches to microtargeting, optimal resource allocation, election day operations, and post-election audits

 
GraphScience, Inc., Palo Alto, CA
Data Scientist (Sept. 2012 – Mar. 2013)

• Served on the founding data science team at an advertising technology startup and Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer
• Developed predictive models to identify social graph signatures of top spenders

• Interfaced with engineering, and product teams to translate insights into business decisions

 
Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign
Senior Consultant (Jan. 2012 – Sept. 2012)

• Designed and implemented national caucus state microtargeting strategy
• Managed data analytics for national voter contact operations
• Consulted on opinion polling and survey methodology

• Field experience in Iowa, New Hampshire, California, Nevada, & Washington

 
Columbia Business School, New York, NY
The Center for Decision Sciences
Research Assistant (Sept. 2011 – Jan. 2012)

• Developed statistical models of decision-making for consumer behavior in health insurance exchanges and consulted on experimental design of behavioral studies

 
United Nations, Population Division, New York, NY
UMInDS Fellow (May 2009 – July 2009)

• Evaluated advanced statistical models for estimating adult mortality in sub-Saharan Africa using sibling survival data
• Generated updated UN population projections and uncertainty estimates

 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute
Graduate Student Research Assistant (Jan. 2009 – Aug. 2010)

• Served as lead statistician on NIH-funded study of the placebo effect

• Conducted multivariate analyses of psychometric, psychophysical, and neuroimaging (fMRI/PET) data to investigate personality trait correlates of placebo analgesia in pain

 
Education
The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Ph.D. Student in Psychology (Integrative Neuroscience Program), 2010-2011
 
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
M.S., Biostatistics, 2010
 
The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
B.S., Economics (minor in Mathematics), 2007
 
Selected achievements

• 5 peer-reviewed co-authored journal publications in neuroscience and plastic surgery, including a 2nd author paper in Neuropsychopharmacology
• Merit fellowships from University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and American Statistical Association; completed advanced workshops in neurobiology, brain imaging, epidemiology, and biodemography

• Published extensively on culture, politics, and society, including in VICE, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and The Huffington Post