Cover Letter 2 [Position Offered]

Tesfa D. Habtewold, BSc, MSc, CRN
Department of Epidemiology
Department of Psychiatry

University Medical Center Groningen
Hanzeplein 1, 9713 GZ, Groningen
Email: [email protected]
Tel-office: +31 50 361 0738
Mobile: +316 3015 6447

18 November 2019

Dr. Nalan Bastürk, Ph.D.
School of Business and Economics
Maastricht University Medical Center
Tongersestraat 53, 6211 LM Maastricht
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +31(0)43 3883843/35

Dear Dr. Bastürk,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and on successful moments. I will like sincerely to congratulate you for obtaining the very prestigious VIDI personal grant. I have been informed for a possibility of a post-doc position under your supervision, with a focus on novel data-driven approaches for analysis of depression.

I am pleased to be informed that I may apply for project, to join your team, with a good sense of increasing academic value and getting the job done in a perfect fashion. I obtained my master degree in 2013 in Adult Health Nursing with a thesis that focus on major depressive disorder and the results have been published in BMC Psychiatry and International Journal of Mental Health Systems.

In 2015, I honored top research master scholarship to a two-year master program in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology, accredited by Vereniging voor Epidemiologie (vve) with a focus on schizophrenia spectrum disorders. I received broad training in Clinical and Psychosocial Epidemiology during my master’s degree study at Graduate School of Medical Science, UMCG. Simultaneously, I have actively taken (summer)courses and seminar classes in designing epidemiological studies, applied longitudinal data analysis, mixed models for clustered data, group-based trajectory modeling, psychiatric epidemiology, and machine learning. I have expanded my methodological and statistical knowledge into data-driven analysis of cluster analysis and group-based trajectory modeling, incorporating big and complex data analysis using SAS, R, and STATA. Specifically, I applied data reduction modeling to analyze multidimensional multi-domain data obtained from genetics, biological, clinical and neuropsychological assessments.

In 2017, up on successful completion of master study, I have awarded a competitive three years scholarship for PhD project aiming to dissect the clinical and statistical heterogeneity of schizophrenia spectrum disorders using neuropsychiatric and cardiometabolic outcomes using family-based cohort data in Dutch population. I have planned to submit my thesis in the coming three to six months. During my PhD, I was successful to accomplish four manuscripts that currently submitted and published in top 10 -15% journals, and two other manuscripts in preparation. In chapter 1, which is submitted to Schizophrenia Bulletin journal, I performed a systematic review of 50 studies that conducted across 30 countries aiming to summarize the evidence from cluster- and trajectory-based studies of positive, negative and cognitive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, their siblings and healthy people. I also highlighted knowledge gaps and point out future directions to optimize the translatability of cluster- and trajectory-based studies, and to use clusters or trajectories as a base for personalized psychiatry. In 10-year longitudinal cohort studies (chapter II to IV) that involved 1,136 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, 1,045 unaffected siblings and 583 healthy controls, I examined the heterogeneity, trajectories and predictors of positive, negative and cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders using a combination of group-based trajectory modeling, polygenic risk score analysis, and multilevel analysis (one paper published in Acta Psychiatrica Scandivinica journal, one submitted to Schizophrenia Research journal, and one in preparation). In cross-sectional studies (chapter V and VI) that involved 1,129 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, I investigated diabetes (under revision in Journal of Psychosomatic Research) and metabolic syndrome by applying linear regression mixed-effects and Mendelian randomization analysis, respectively.

Given my current status of statistical/methodological and clinical knowledge, skills and experiences, I believe I am a good fit to the purpose of your wonderful research project, while it offers the opportunity to expand my understanding and capacity to perform data-driven approaches, and elucidating the trajectory of depression and treatment outcomes.

I am excited and highly motivated about this life-time opportunity, and to be part of your research team and delivering my tasks under your supervision. Enclosed you will find my CV.

Please let me know if I can provide additional information or materials required to document my qualifications. I would greatly appreciate it if you give me an opportunity to meet and to further discuss the research project, and to explain myself and my research interests.

Thank you in advance for your time and for consideration of my application.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours Sincerely,

Tesfa D. Habtewold