Hi! I’m Didar, a research assistant at Virginia Tech, specializing in Applied Econometrics and Health Economics. My academic journey began at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh, and progressed through a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Toledo. I have a deep passion for exploring the complexities of economics, statistics, and finance, which has led me to diverse roles – from assisting faculty in research to guiding students academically and serving as Vice President of the Young Economists’ Society. Highly skilled in advanced econometric techniques, quantitative methods, statistics, financial and business analytics, machine learning algorithms and various data analysis tools including Excel, R, STATA, SAS, SPSS, Python, SQL, ArcGIS, PowerBI, and Tableau, I strive to translate complex datasets into meaningful insights. I have a track record of demonstrating effective written and verbal communication skills, which made me adept at working in fast-paced environments both independently and as part of a team. I possess effective listening, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills with a keen attention to detail being dependable and flexible with strong emotional intelligence. As an aspiring economist, I look forward to leveraging my expertise in analytics, management, teaching and consulting to build a better, organized and data-informed world.