He is an accomplished biostatistician, dedicated supervisor and respected group leader. He makes valuable contributions to his projects and always welcomes constructive feedback. He recently hosted the “Excellent German Student Event” attended by 16 students, all of whom showed great interest in the Centre’s training program. Gergely Agócs was honored with the Excellent Staff Member Award by the Centre for Translational Medicine.

Dr. Agócs participates in the work of the CTM as a senior statistician and supports students’ work in several groups, usually in collaboration with Boglárka Szentes. “As statisticians, we work in pairs, and we sometimes seek the input of Tamás Kói, Dániel Veres or Andrea Harnos on our work. I consider teamwork to be very important. Most of our projects are related to pediatrics, gynecology, cardiology, rheumatology, dentistry, and sports science. In addition to my work as a statistician, I am a group leader of the Miscellaneous Group, where I facilitate projects and provide general methodological and statistical advice.”

Since Gergely has been involved in German-language training at the university’s Faculty of Medicine as an instructor since 2012, he was happy to take on the task of organizing the Excellent German Student Event at CTM. “We thought this event was important because every year, hundreds of talented and highly motivated German-speaking students begin their studies at Semmelweis University and attracting some of them to our Ph.D. program would be beneficial. Our event was attended by 16 students, all of whom expressed interest in the CTM program.” The German-speaking students were primarily interested in how MD-Ph.D. students can align their Ph.D. research work with the 5th- and 6th-year curriculum schedules. They also asked how they could apply to the program if they wanted to participate in projects as TDK students. They were also interested in what research topics were available.

Gergely and his colleagues are currently working to set up a group at CTM for the next academic year, in which Ph.D. students can approach research from a statistical perspective. “Since the establishment of CTM, a large number of meta-analyses have been published, and many methodological questions have arisen for which we have not found clear answers. It would be worthwhile to examine and address these questions at a professional and scientific level, and then publish the results in scientific journals. Many of my colleagues would participate in this work as supervisors. We welcome applications from candidates with diverse academic and professional backgrounds, including international applicants. For us, the most important qualification is strong expertise in statistics, data analysis, and quantitative research methods, as these skills are central to the projects conducted within our group. A particular strength of the program is its close integration with the work of the Centre for Translational Medicine, allowing methodological innovations and research findings to be rapidly translated into ongoing clinical projects.”

(Szabó Emese)