Data Science is a vast field that originated some decades ago but since then it has been rapidly evolving. The modern data science industry is capable of solving different kinds of business problems. Now data science has become an inevitable technology for all organizations who want to keep pace with the changing trends of the world.
The Mordor Intelligence research company has forecast the data science market to be growing at a CAGR of 15.89% in the next five years reaching a market value of $278.89 billion by 2028. The industry will be offering tremendous job opportunities for students and professionals who want to pursue careers in data science and engineering.
If you are planning to go for this career path, you must be updated with the latest innovations. And for that, you must be aware of and follow the top data science professionals. Here let us have a look at some of the most followed data science experts on X (formerly Twitter):
Top Data Science Professionals to follow on Twitter
- Dean Abbott – @deanabb
(Co-founder and Chief Data Scientist, SmarterHQ)
Dean Abbott is also the founder and president of Abbott Analytics and has authored bestselling book Applied Predictive Analytics: Principles and Techniques for the Professional Data Analyst. He has also co-authored the IBM SPSS Modeler Cookbook. He has been developing and applying techniques in data mining, data preparation, and data visualization methods to solve business problems since 1987.
- John Elder – @johnelder4
(Founder, Elder Research, Inc.)
Elder Research is a data mining consultancy firm founded by John Elder. Dr. Elder is also a keynote speaker. He has co-authored three popular books – Handbook of Statistical Analysis and Data Mining Applications, Ensemble Methods in Data Mining, and Practical Text Mining. The Elder Research mostly focuses on investment, commercial, and security applications of advanced analytics, text mining, image recognition, and biometrics. John Elder is a professor at the University of Virginia too and he teaches the students optimization of data mining to enhance their data science skills.
- Bernard Marr – @BernardMarr
(Founder and CEO, Bernard Marr & Co.)
Marr is a writer and expert who talks a lot about the future. He helps big companies and governments with their data and provides consultancy services. He’s so good at it that he coaches several organizations, and he’s considered one of the top business influencers in the data science industry and the number one influencer in the UK on LinkedIn. He also writes for the World Economic Forum and has written many articles and books, including one called ” Big Data: Using SMART Big Data, Analytics and Metrics to Make Better Decisions and Improve Performance” which helps people make better decisions and do better in their work.
- Hilary Mason – @hmason
(Former General Manager for Machine Learning, Cloudera)
Mason started a company called Fast Forward Labs and worked as the top scientist at Bitly for four years. Right now, she’s part of the group that helps the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. She also helped start HackNY and is part of a hacker group in Brooklyn called NYCResistor.
- Nando de Freitas – @NandoDF
(Scientist lead for the machine learning team, Google DeepMind)
De Freitas is an expert in the field of data science and engineering. He teaches computer science at Oxford University. He is an expert in Machine Learning, especially neural networks, Bayesian stuff, and deep learning. He also works at Google DeepMind and helps them use technology to develop solutions beneficial for everyone all while making sure it’s safe and follows the ethics. Because of his contributions and great work in the field of machine learning, he has earned several rewards. He received best-paper awards at the International Conference on Machine Learning in 2016. He also received the International Conference on Learning Representations in the same year.
- Kenneth Cukier – @kncukier
(Senior editor, The Economist)
He is an editor in The Economist and has also co-authored famous books in the data science industry like Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Lve, Work, and Think. He is also a famous speaker as well as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council on data-driven development. He is a regular guest on BBC, CNN, and NPR who talks about different ways to enhance data science skills. He was a research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government from 2002 to 2004. He also conducts research on Artificial Intelligence in the Oxford Said Business School.
Conclusion
If you want to keep up to date with the latest innovations and trends in the data science industry then these are the professionals you must follow and learn the ideas of applying data science innovatively. Apart from these, there are several other personalities including Fei-Fei Li, Andrew Ng, Lillian Pierson, Kira Radinsky, Richard Socher, etc. that you can follow and learn from. Data Science and engineering is a popular course in recent times and learning the regular course curriculum along with real-world experiences from these top data science professionals can be an added advantage.