Alex Foss
About Alex Foss
Alex Foss is a Senior Statistician at Sandia National Laboratories with extensive experience in high performance computing and a strong background in biostatistics.
Current Title and Role
Alex Foss holds the title of Senior Statistician at Sandia National Laboratories. Based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Alex has been in this role since 2017. Sandia National Laboratories is known for its research and development in national security, energy, and environmental technologies.
Previous Work Experience
Before joining Sandia National Laboratories, Alex Foss accumulated a range of experiences in both research and industry roles. Alex was a Tech Intern at Google in Mountain View for three months in 2015. Additionally, he served at the University at Buffalo in various capacities, including Graduate Research Assistant from 2013 to 2017 and Graduate Teaching Assistant from 2012 to 2013. He also worked as a Data Analyst at New York University from 2011 to 2012 and as a Graduate Research Assistant at UC Berkeley from 2009 to 2010.
Educational Background
Alex Foss has a strong educational background in multiple disciplines. He earned an MA and PhD in Biostatistics from the State University of New York at Buffalo, studying from 2012 to 2017. He also holds a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from Sewanee-The University of the South, completed between 2010 and 2012. Additionally, Alex studied Psychology and Piano Performance at Indiana University Bloomington from 2003 to 2007. He completed his high school education at Lowell High School from 1999 to 2003.
Research and Teaching Roles
Alex Foss has extensive experience in research and teaching. He was a Research Assistant at multiple institutions, including The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from 2007 to 2009, Yale University for three months in 2007, and Indiana University from 2005 to 2007. In addition to his research roles, he was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University at Buffalo from 2012 to 2013, sharing his knowledge and expertise with students.
Technical Skills and Expertise
Alex Foss possesses in-depth technical skills, especially in high-performance computing techniques such as parallel programming, map-reduce, and cluster computing. He utilizes RCpp to incorporate handwritten C++ code in R, significantly speeding up loops and array/matrix operations. Furthermore, he employs MPI and the RMPI package for parallelizing operations and uses Hadoop streaming for map-reduce tasks. His business and scientific communication skills enable him to quickly acquire domain expertise and contextualize complex questions.