In today’s world, we are literally covered with data. From the online e-commerce stores suggesting to us the items that we should buy or YouTube suggesting the content based on our early searches and playback history.
Data is all around us, and it would be hard for the current technology to survive without having a continuous feeding of data that it has access to. Data science has already emerged as an innovative and revolutionary approach to modern technological systems. From small vehicles running on digital engines to the revolutions taking place in modern medicine, data science is there.
Simply lingering behind the shadows, it offers its consistent support in terms of the data models for running statistics and improved technologies like machine learning to make predictions for better future prospects of the businesses. We can’t survive in this modern society without the essence of data being spun around to make our lives better and improving our living conditions.
Top Data Science Influencers to Follow
Basically, when we have accepted the fact that our past and future are tied in a tight loop and depend on data for survival but we never talk about the influencers behind all this, now do we? People behind all this, pulling on the strings and making our future a bright and data-oriented place. This is something that is long overdue and we must get over with it sooner than later, so without further ado let’s introduce some of the best data science influencers out there.
These are the people that have literally and figuratively polished the current scope and stretch of data science and without their support and knowledge shared we wouldn’t be where we currently are. So, without further ado let’s get right into it.
Ronald Van Loon
Ronald Van Loon has emerged out as a dedicated data science enthusiast over the years with a classic approach to modern prospects such as machine and deep learning. But his main work and services lie with Big data, analytics, IoT, business intelligence, and mainly data science.
He is among the top 10 global influencers when it comes to all of the categories mentioned above. Mr. Van Loon is not only the most sought-after speaker as a data science influencer but the overall following he has over Twitter is also exemplary. The main workings of this great personality involve helping data-driven businesses to become more and more successful.
His articles can be found on the internet on topics such as BI and Big data, he also has a pretty interesting and overwhelming following of readers for his works. The man is a great advocate of big data and hosts various online education seminars and workshops
Merv Adrian
Merv Adrian is the current vice president and data analyst working with Gartner. He has experience of almost 30 years of working for multiple tech companies and setting up a reputation as one of the biggest data science influencers out there. His main work involves devising plans and schemes for business intelligence-oriented companies to do better with onboard data protection and their digital assets. He specializes mainly in database management systems, Big data, NoSQL product landscapes, and dedicated opportunities.
Adrian has a blog about the impacts of big data on our digital presence and the opportunities that it brings forth at the Gartner. The man is also known to provide consulting and act as Gartner’s lead analyst for Microsoft. His main work involves coordinating with these third-party conglomerates regarding Gartner’s research activities regarding data science.
Kirk Borne
Kirk Borne is a principal data science expert and enthusiast working at Booz Allen Hamilton. He has also worked on various projects on and off regarding data scrapping and is considered a big expert on data mining. He has also worked as an astrophysicist for NASA and was an expert on data mining at the time. At once he was also called upon to brief the US president regarding the data mining post 9/11.
Data mining was a hot topic back then and was really considered by the US government as a tool that could be used to detect and prevent another terrorist attack of such magnitude. Since then Kirk Borne has taken on the hot streak to prominence within the data science industry.
The influence of Borne on data science and related technologies can be evident from his following on Twitter.
Cindi Howson
Cindi Howson is a dedicated professional and expert in the prospects of BI or business intelligence. She is currently the vice president of research at Gartner where she works closely with the BI developers and teams to revolutionize the technology in order to help businesses of every scale and magnitude. She is even the founder of BI Scorecard and the BI product resource that is based on hands-on testing. Howson is considered an expert on advising clients on how to choose the best BI tools and strategies to adopt for increasing productivity-boosting their revenue. She is known to be doing this for 20 years which is a long time in the game.
She is also a faculty member of the data warehousing institute and a contributing expert to the information week. Howson is also known to author plenty of blogs and articles, some of her own and others for which she works as a guest writer. She is a true artist and influencer regarding Data science.
Carlie Iodine
Carlie Iodine is the research director for the “business analytics and data science for the IT leaders”. She is outsourcing her services as an expert on BI or business intelligence, business analytics as well as various data science-oriented toolsets and approaches. Other areas in which she is known to offer her services include; citizen data scientists, optimization strategies, and data science-oriented processes. She can be regarded as a full-on expert regarding business analytics, data science integration with new technologies, and enterprise analytics and strategies for small and corporate-sized businesses.
She is normally known to provide research and advisory services for businesses that want to work on improving their current data analytics model and also for solving complex business-oriented problems with the help of advanced BI systems.
Doug Laney
Doug Laney was formerly the vice president and a distinguished analyst with Gartner’s chief data officer research and the advisory practice. He currently leads the data and analytics strategy practice with the Caserta consultancy. The main work of this professional involves sharing his insight and thoughts about business and data analytics and how the game can be improved to match future challenges. He is an independent and accomplished practitioner for data science and analytics authority. For his remarkable accomplishments, he has been given Gartner’s annual thought leadership award three times.
He is also considered an expert on data and analytics strategy and has gathered a lot of fame on the subject as a top global influencer. Mr. Laney helps big corporate and small digital startups with data monetization, valuation, discerning between the open and syndicated data, data governance, and big data innovation that is coming in the near future. He is also a blogger and carries a strong following on Twitter for his current works and for the components in data science he stands for.
Ben Lorica
Ben Lorica has been a great influencer of data science and himself is the chief data scientist at O’Reilly Media. Mr. Lorica has been known to work closely with multiple data science enthusiasts and teams over the years for revising and revolutionizing various domains of data science. These can include financial engineering, market research, web analytics, and text mining. All of these resources can help businesses and organizations to potentially shape their future if used right. Mr. Ben provides dedicated and insightful advice to these business setups on how they can improve their current business model by incorporating data science-related prospects such as deep and machine learning into it.
He is a big-time influencer on Twitter and goes by the @BigData as a twitter handler. He is also known to host one or two podcasts regarding the influence on Big Data and its interconnection with BI (business intelligence). He is also a blogger and enthusiast who simply wants the world to have more understanding of where Data science can lead the future of technology.
Hilary Mason
Hilary Mason is the founder as well as the current CEO of the fast-forward labs. She is known for her services as a machine learning and deep thinking technology that can be used for devising many relatable and intentional predictions regarding business or digital decisions. Her company is a machine intelligence research company. She also works as the general manager of machine learning at Cloudera and as a profound data scientist at Accel. She is also known to host meet-ups and dedicated sessions where she addresses various businesses about the core importance of having a data strategy at hand.
She has also worked for four years as a chief scientist at Bitly. She is a true data science influencer engaged in a variety of different tasks all at the same time. She is a blogger, data science speaker, and influencer with a pretty great following on Twitter. She also writes consistently and is the co-author of Data-Driven; creating a data culture blogpost.
Gregory Piatetsky
Gregory Piatetsky is the current president of KDnuggets which is the largest website there is regarding data science and Big data space. He has worked extensively and is no less than an expert on big data, data mining, and data science-related prospects. He is also the co-founder of KDD (knowledge discovery and data mining) and occasionally helps to host conferences in relation to data mining and data science.
According to this amazing researcher, author, blogger, speaker, and influencer data science might be the only viable solution to the major world problems taking into account the economic as well as the financial storms which are being faced by the public and organizations to this date. He has a great following on Twitter and is considered a great influencer in true terms who preaches the importance of data science and significantly warns about the hole that would be left on our economy and definition of technology if data science is to be left behind.
Jen Stirrup
Jen Stirrup is recognized as a great influencer and spokesperson for data science, Big Data, and business intelligence. She is known to hold conferences, workshops, and podcasts preaching about data science, big data, and Business intelligence. She is also known to consult various large corporations and digital businesses over their current data strategies and BI solutions which they have incorporated into their system. Not only this but she also shares dedicated insight such as how the overall experience of these businesses can be changed regarding BI and Big data and how it is important to have a data strategy at hand.
She is also the founder of Data Relish and has 20 years of experience in the data and IT industry. She works on various fronts and all at the same time. She is a public speaker about data science, blogger, Microsoft data platform’s most valuable professional (MVP), and a technical community advocate too. She has already written and published two books on Tableau and R and is currently on her way to write one for the Microsoft Power BI.
The field of data science and digital technology is expanding at a faster rate than intended and it is nice to have influencers and experts on whom professionals can look at inspiring themselves to do better and be better for the sake of the future that corresponds to data and data science.
