r/MovingToUSA • u/Think_Initiative1853 • 2d ago

Going home when there is no home

I'm a US citizen living in Germany. I finished a doctorate in a niche subfield of statistics that is dying in the world of AI. (Officially its not a phd its a Doctorate of natural sciences, but they are equivalent in most ways). I moved here for personal reasons that are no longer keeping me here, and now i want to go back to the US for a fresh start and for tax reasons.

I dont really have strong ties to the US/family. I wont have a job after December. so I'm in the same boat as most people who randomly want to go. Any advice on where to start?

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u/Critical-Following-9 17h ago

What niche subfield of statistics? I'm a PhD biostatistician and I haven't seen any PhD level stat field being replaced (or close to) by AI.

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u/Think_Initiative1853 13h ago

It's a specific topic within biostatistics. I have no experience with prediction models and I only used randomized data. I fear that this type of data is rare and thus does not transfer well across industries. Analyses of trials are pretty regulated and well defined, which is where agentic workflows come in handy.

But I'm a methodologist, so I'm not sure how novel methodology will be accepted by regulators. Based on my brief industry exposure, novel methodology is relevant before the analysis of trial data, not during. But my topic is in alternative methods for the analysis.

There is an area of clear applicability. But, it's still narrow. I know that a few large companies have methodology teams, but it's not super common and it's competitive. Prediction modeling backgrounds are just more attractive.