Simona Cristea

Research Scientist
Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Cristea is the Head of Data Science at the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research. She is leading a team of data scientists and mathematical modelers to discover the hidden biology in large single cell cancer genomics datasets. Dr. Cristea’s team is developing novel machine learning and evolutionary biology algorithms to connect AI-driven big data with mechanistic thinking. Dr. Cristea holds two bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Cybernetics from Bucharest, Romania, a Master’s in Computational Biology and a PhD in Computational Cancer Genomics from ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Throughout her career, Dr. Cristea has been the recipient of multiple awards and fellowships, including the ETH Excellence Scholarship, several Swiss National Science Foundation fellowships, and the Helen Gurley Women in Science Award.

Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information
Name: Simona Cristea
Nationality: Romanian
Address: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, CLS Building, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA 02115
Email address: scristea [at] jimmy.harvard.edu
Education
2006 – 2009 Bachelor of Science, Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Bucharest, București, Romania
2006 – 2009 Bachelor of Science, Informatics, Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, București, Romania
2008 – 2009 Erasmus Exchange Student, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
2009 – 2011 Master of Science, Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
2011 – 2015 PhD, Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Scientific Career
2011 – 2014 Teaching Assistant, Evolutionary Dynamics (Master-level course), ETH Zürich, Switzerland
2016 – 2020 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2020 – 2022 Instructor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School
2022 – present Research Scientist, Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute