Nancy Rivers Tran

Nancy joined the Cancer Health Services Research (CHSR) Group as a Research Fellow in September 2019.

Before joining the team, Nancy completed studies in epidemiology with research topics focused on prediction models. Her projects looked at predicting whether twins’ pairs are identical or non-identical from just population data, bypassing DNA testing and questionnaires. The prediction models use several different machine learning techniques such as decision tree, random forest, ridge logistic regression, LASSO regression and Elastic Net regression. Other than research, Nancy also has a keen interest in improving her science communication skills. She has dabbled in scientific blogging and radio. During her masters, she was also the Research for Higher Degree Officer for the Melbourne Population and Global Health Student Association.

Upon completing her masters, Nancy joined the CHSR Unit. Her work focuses on augmenting the Clinical Trial Management Scheme (CTMS) data, with plans to develop a new repository and template for data linkage and extraction. The improved data will benefit the development of metrics to define the “value” of clinical trials. Nancy hopes that her work will drive meaningful changes to clinical practices, helping Victorians dealing with cancer and its consequences.

Nancy has a Bachelor of Science (Pathology) and a Master of Science (Epidemiology) both from the University of Melbourne.

In her spare time, Nancy volunteers for TravellersAid or play PS4. She was described as being “too passionate” for food. She loves eating food, making food, going to market to look at food or travelling to eat international food. She also has a bunny, Bunbun, who also is very passionate about food.