Can a Mathematics Undergrad do a Ph.D. in Bioinformatics? I have a particular background, I studied biology and Chemistry in Highschool, some engineering in college, and I am now majoring in mathematics with a minor in computer science.
To some extent I feel like being able to do research is on my life goals bucket list. Diving into unexplored territory definitely excites me. So I somewhat feel I need to take advantage of the broad spectrum of fields I have knowledge of, although almost insignificant, it is still there. I thought maybe bioinformatics mixed with some data science algorithm research would be a good path to pursue. Would my prior experience in Biology give me an advantage? For example the ability to pick up technical biology concepts quicker?
Any insight and guidance on the topic would be appreciated.
Kind regards.
Sure. There are many people who transitioned to Bioinformatics from a math background. As one example, there is a lot of machine learning being applied to various aspects of biology, and that could be a good fit for you.
But I would just caution that when choosing a Ph.D. topic, you should really think about what you want to do in the future, rather than what you've done in high school, or even taken a couple classes on in college. In a Ph.D. you'll anyway have to learn a lot about some very narrow topics and also (possibly) take some broad classes, so the fact that you know a bit extra about some biological concepts is not that important; a student without that background could probably catch up by reading a couple of books or taking a Coursera class, and both of you will be way behind an actual Biochemistry major (but still OK in the end). Pick your topic and advisor based on what sort of problems you want to solve for the next five years, and where you really see yourself ten years from now.