Hi, I’m Ethan, originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, now living in Toronto, Ontario. I moved here in 2017 to complete a Bachelors degree in Statistics and Economics at the University of Toronto. After finishing my undergraduate degree I worked as the University of Toronto economics department’s longest serving research assistant, first working with Laura Derksen to measure the role of information access in social network formation in this paper and then working with Eva Vivalt for nearly two years on an RCT studying the impacts of unconditional cash transfers. I continue to work on the unconditional cash transfers project as a part-time Data Analyst for the Open Research Lab and have returned to the University of Toronto for a Masters in Statistics.

At work and in school I use the R programming language nearly every day for statistical analysis and data wrangling. I occasionally write R packages and frequently plan to write R packages. For tasks at which R does not excel, I am also comfortable using Javascript and Python. I am slowly working my way through learncpp.com - I’ll let you know here when I’ve finished.

When I have time, I like to meet and volunteer with cool data-people. From 2020-2022 I volunteered on the executive team of the Toronto Chapter of Data for Good, where I helped organize events for students and data-oriented-professionals to meet and conduct pro-bono data analyses on the behalf of local charities. In 2023, I gave this presentation at a Civic Tech Toronto event about trees, based on a paper that I wrote for an undergraduate course, also about trees. If you haven’t heard of it, Civic Tech Toronto hosts weekly hybrid in-person and virtual presentations (I’d recommend watching this one given by best cartographer Jeff Allen). If you see me attending a Civic Tech event, say hi!

When I have more time still, I enjoy reading old sci-fi novels which, unfortunately, I don’t always know how to quit (I made it through the first 3 of 10 books in L. Ron Hubbard’s 1.2 million word Mission Earth series, which I can’t recommend). I also enjoy, but am less proficient at, trying to restore old chairs and other furniture. If you happened to shop on Queen Street West during the summer of 2018, you may own a wobbly live-edge wood table that I built. My preferred video game is Wii Sports.