Over the years, data science and big data analytics have gone through significant changes. Organisations have been shifting to this domain where data scientists and analysts play a major role. According to reports, the overall data analytics industry in India is estimated to be $3.03 Billion annually in size, and it is expected to double in size by 2025.

Just a few days away now, The Rising, which is to be held on 20th March 2020 in Bengaluru has created a buzz around the tech community. The Rising is the biggest gathering of women professionals in data science, IT industry and academia. The event promises to provide a wide range of opportunities to the tech-savvy professionals and help them understand how to sustain their careers in the ever-evolving field.

In this article, we list down 9 top women data scientists one must follow on LinkedIn.

(The list is in alphabetical order)

1| Anima Anandkumar

Animashree (Anima) Anandkumar is the Director of Machine Learning Research at NVIDIA and the Bren Professor of Computing at California Institute of Technology. At NVIDIA, she is leading the research group that develops next-generation AI algorithms. Her research spans both theoretical and practical aspects of large-scale machine learning and has spearheaded the development of tensor-algebraic methods, non-convex optimisation, probabilistic models and deep learning. 

Follow her here.

2| Caitlin Smallwood

Caitlin Smallwood is VP of Data Science and Analytics at Netflix, where she leads and manages analytics, measurement and prediction, algorithm and other such research for all parts of Netflix. Her specialities include operation research, analytic products, product management, data strategy, and other such. 

Follow her here.

3| Cassie Kozyrkov

Cassie Kozyrkov is a data scientist and leader at Google. She founded the field of Decision Intelligence at Google, where she serves as Chief Decision Scientist. Her specialisation includes deep technical expertise, world-class public-speaking skills, analytics management experience, experimental game theory, industrial organisation, and other such. 

Follow her here.

4| Emily Glassberg Sands

Emily Glassberg Sands is the head of data science at Coursera. Her passion is to use data to understand individual decision-making and societal trends and to build products that solve critical inefficiencies in the market. She leads the end-to-end data team at Coursera, where she works in machine learning, decision science, and data engineering.

Follow her here.

5| Elena Grewal

Elena Grewal is the head of data science at Airbnb, where she builds the strategy for how Airbnb uses data for decision making and to infuse products and processes with algorithms. At Airbnb, some of her projects include the impact of identifying verification products and other review projects. 

Follow her here.

6| Fei-Fei Li

Fei-Fei Li is the inaugural Sequoia Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, and Co-Director of Stanford’s Human-Centered AI Institute. Her current research interests include cognitively inspired AI, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and AI+healthcare especially ambient intelligent systems for healthcare delivery. She is a national leading voice for advocating diversity in STEM and AI and is the co-founder and chairperson of the national non-profit AI4ALL aimed at increasing inclusion and diversity in AI education.

Follow her here.

7| Kristen Kehrer

Kristen Kehrer is the instructor of Data Science at UC Berkeley Extension and a faculty and data science SME at Emeritus Institute of Management. She is one of the top voices in Data Science and Analytics at LinkedIn. With more than ten years of experience, Kristen delivers insights on machine learning solutions across various domains such as healthcare, e-commerce, among others.    

Follow her here.

8| Rachel Thomas

Rachel Thomas is the founding director of the USF Center for Applied Data Ethics which aims to address harms such as disinformation, surveillance, algorithmic bias, and other misuses of data. She is also the co-founder of fast.ai and a popular keynote speaker on topics like data ethics, AI accessibility, and bias in machine learning.

Follow her here.

9| Yael Garten

Yael Garten is the Director of Siri Data Science and Engineering. She expertises in driving value via rigorous scientific use of data in business decision-making and product development. At Apple, she leads the Siri Data Organisation, where the mission is to improve Siri by using data. Her specialisation includes data strategy, data science, product analysis, human computation, natural language processing (NLP), and other such. 

Follow her here.