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Joshua Satya Cetron, Ph.D. | Resume

jcetron [@] iq.harvard.edu | 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138

Data scientist, applied statistician, research methodologist, cognitive neuroscientist

Education

Ph.D., Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, May 2023
M.A. in Psychology also conferred in March 2021

  • Advisors: Mina Cikara, Ph.D. (primary advisor), Joshua Greene, Ph.D.
  • Presidential Scholar, Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
  • National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow

B.A., Neuroscience, Summa Cum Laude, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, June 2016

  • GPA: 3.92, Phi Beta Kappa, Rufus Choate Scholar (top 5% of class, 2 years)
  • High Honors Award, Neuroscience Honors Thesis (advisor: David Kraemer, Ph.D.)
  • James O. Freeman Presidential Scholar and Kaminsky Family Fund Award Grantee

Professional Experience

Data Science Specialist, Harvard University Institute for Quantitative Social Science
Cambridge, MA, June 2023 - Present

  • Consultant and expert collaborator advising on the development and implementation of methods and statistical analyses for cutting-edge scientific research at Harvard and MIT
  • Special expertise: experimental methods, advanced regression modeling, high-dimensional representational analysis, programming and data visualization in R

Data Management Expert, CAFE RCC for Health & Extreme Weather
Harvard University and Boston University, June 2023 - Present

  • Senior member of the Data Management Function for the NIH-funded CAFE Research Coordinating Center at Boston University School of Public Health and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
  • Built and maintain a multi-platform system for sharing data and code, analysis tutorials, and translational research expertise among the health and extreme weather research community of practice

Owner and Expert Consultant, Satya Data Solutions, LLC
Somerville, MA, July 2025 - Present

  • Expert consultant in data science, research analysis, and statistical modeling
  • Developing, scoping, and directing statistical analysis, data management, and multi-modal data harmonization for researchers and industry professionals
  • Translational research expertise across disciplines including the social and behavioral sciences, healthcare and biological sciences, cognitive science and artificial intelligence

Doctoral Researcher, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, September 2018 - May 2023

  • Built and implemented a research program on the impact of intergroup bias on evidence-based learning and the mental representations of factual and opinion statements
  • Developed new methods advancing neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and statistics

Teaching Fellow in Doctoral Statistics, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, September 2020 - December 2024

  • Taught advanced statistics courses for Harvard doctoral students in the social sciences alongside Senior Lecturer in Statistics Patrick Mair, Ph.D.
  • Sample topics: Advanced regression modeling (GLMMs, GAMs, robust and resistant regression, mixture models), Bayesian inference, cluster analysis, hidden Markov models, regularization (LASSO, Ridge)
  • Three-time awardee of the Derek Bok Center Certificate of Distinction in Teaching

Skills and Expertise

  • Statistical consulting expertise: 3 years of professional consulting on over 150 unique cases supporting statistical analysis, methods development, data management, research planning, experimental design
  • Advanced expertise in R for statistical modeling and data visualization
  • Advanced regression modeling (frequentist and Bayesian): Linear and generalized linear fixed-effects, mixed-effects, and additive modeling, mixture regression, robust and quantile regression
  • Multivariate cluster analyses: Hierarchical clustering, density-based clustering, K-means
  • Multivariate analyses to process and characterize high-dimensional data: representational similarity analysis (RSA), multivariate pattern analysis of neuroimaging data (MVPA), multidimensional scaling (MDS) and unfolding analysis, principal components analysis (PCA), support vector machine (SVM) classifiers, informational network analysis
  • Other programming expertise: Python, shell scripting, HPC batch computing (incl. slurm and PBS), web-scraping, RMarkdown, Quarto, and jupyter notebook
  • Additional skills: Fluent in Spanish; lifelong musician (25+ years of multi-instrumental training and performance)

Additional Work Experience

Honors Thesis and Research Advisor, Harvard University
Cambridge, MA, 2019 - 2022

  • Advised and mentored multiple award-winning undergraduate student researchers

Researcher and Lab Manager, Cognitive Neuroscience of Learning Lab, Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH, 2013 - 2018

  • Designed and conducted neuroimaging, behavioral, and classroom-based research to explore the multivariate neural representations of STEM learning
  • Developed novel analytical methods to characterize knowledge representations in the brain
  • Authored 6 academic publications, 5 of which were published within a 2-year period

Director, Dartmouth Outing Club (DOC) First-Year Trips Program
Hanover, NH, 2015 - 2016

  • Directed the largest College outdoor orientation program in the country: 1000 incoming students participating in 139 five-day, student-led outdoor trips across New Hampshire’s White Mountains
  • Interviewed and hired a 20-person Directorate including 1 Assistant Director and 19 team leaders
  • Selected and managed a student volunteer staff of 350+ (278 trip leaders + 56 support crew members on 6 teams) from an applicant pool of 600+

Laboratory Intern and Research Assistant, Emory University Transplant Centers
Atlanta, GA, 2010 - 2012

  • Assisted with data collection, specimen management, and statistical analysis in the laboratory of Leslie Kean, M.D., Ph.D. studying graft-versus-host disease in bone marrow transplant patients

Program Facilitator, Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership (PSYL)
Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific, Victoria, B.C., Canada, 2010 & 2011

  • Designed and implemented a month-long summer leadership program on social justice, global citizenship, environmental sustainability, and community-building for 100 high school students from 20+ countries, alongside 16 other facilitators and 8 program coordinators