Meredith Kruse, a Ph.D. candidate in Rice University’s Department of Statistics who will graduate in December, has accepted a position as an AI Engineer at Fifth Third Bank, where she will design AI tools that will assist lenders and other bank stakeholders in their day-to-day operations.
Under the mentorship of Katherine B. Ensor, the Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics and director of the Center for Computational Finance and Economics Systems (CoFES), Kruse developed a data and analysis pipeline from Form N-PORT, a financial disclosure filing introduced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2020. The filing provides detailed information about the stocks held by individual investment funds, offering researchers a more complete picture of fund activity.
Kruse built, verified and published on GitHub, a pipeline that compiles Form N-PORT filings, making fund-by-fund holdings data more accessible to other researchers. Her analysis showed that large investment funds adjust their portfolios shortly before they are required to publicly report their holdings each quarter, and that these last-minute trades can measurably affect stock prices. She also found that funds invested across many industries make better-informed decisions during market swings than those concentrated in a single sector.
Beyond her research, CoFES helped Kruse see how statistical methods could be applied across industries. Through the center’s seminars and special lectures, Kruse met professionals in banking, trading, and real estate and connected with industry collaborators who contributed to her doctoral projects. These experiences reinforced her view that statistical thinking is valuable in both finance and artificial intelligence.
“Meredith’s path is a great example for our students and for the CoFES community. It is important for our students to know that the job titles open to statisticians are broad,” Ensor said.
Statisticians, Kruse explains, are trained to understand when to apply different models and to look beyond simple correlations. In AI, that perspective is especially important when evaluating whether a model’s results can be trusted.
Kruse’s doctoral training also helped her prepare for the demands of her new role. During the interview process, she said, employers were particularly interested in the research skills she had developed as a Ph.D. student.
“What they really cared about was that as a Ph.D. student I had learned the iterative research process: getting stuck on something, pivoting and being able to think on my feet,” she said.
She credits networking at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) with helping her discover the opportunity at Fifth Third Bank. Her advice to current students is to remain open to opportunities and experiences.
”Say yes to opportunities as they come up, because what you want at the beginning of your Ph.D. might not necessarily be what you end up doing in the end.”