37 Data Science Experts You Should Know About

With the Data Science industry continually evolving, there can be a lot to keep up with. New trends are coming up quite frequently, and if you want to do a good job and improve your skills, you must keep yourself up-to-date. Even though there is plenty of information online, it can be difficult to digest all the information published online and find the time to read important news. We have created a list of people to help you eliminate unnecessary noise while staying connected to the Data Science community. The people listed promote learning and the sharing of knowledge by sharing their insights through LinkedIn, Twitter, blog posts, podcasts, books, workshops, etc.

Top Data Science experts you should know about

1. Merv Adrian

Merv Adrian is a Vice-President and an Analyst at Gartner with over 30 years of experience in IT. Adrian specializes in mapping the Database Management System (DBMS), Big Data and NoSQL product landscapes and opportunities. He also serves as Gartner’s lead analyst for Microsoft, coordinating Gartner’s research activities.

2. Ronald van Loon

Ronald van Loon has been recognized among the top 10 global influencers in Big Data, analytics, IoT, BI, and data science. With more than 240,000 followers on Twitter, Ronald has a huge following, and he is a highly sought-after speaker. As the director of Advertisement, he works to help data-driven businesses be more successful. He also writes compelling articles about Big Data and related topics for publications such as Data Science Central, Datafloq and Dataconomy. He is an advisory board member for the Big Data training category at Simplilearn and an online education provider. He also manages the LinkedIn group Awesome Ways Big Data Is Used to Improve Our World.

3. Kirk Borne

Kirk Borne is a Principal Data Scientist at Booz Allen Hamilton. As an astrophysicist formerly working at NASA, Borne was the expert called upon to brief the President of the United States on data mining post 9/11, as the government explored how to use data mining to detect and prevent another terrorist attack. Since then, Borne has risen to prominence throughout the industry. With more than 270,000 followers on Twitter, Borne’s influence in data and analytics is widespread.

4. Marcus Borba

Marcus Borba is a Big Data, analytics, and data science consultant and advisor. Borba has been named a top Big Data and data science influencer and expert several times. He has also been named a top influencer in machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), business intelligence (BI), and digital transformation.

5. Vincent Granville

Vincent Granville is the Co-founder and the Executive Data Scientist at Data Science Central ( you may find it in top data science blogs ), one of the most popular online resources for both professionals and enthusiasts in Big Data, analytics, and data science. Granville is also extremely knowledgeable about machine learning applied to Internet search technology, predictive modeling, keyword and BI, fraud detection, and data mining.

6. Carla Gentry

Data enthusiast Carla Gentry is the owner of Analytical Solution. Gentry has helped brands as big as Kellogg’s, Hershey, Discover Financial Services, Firestone, and Kraft. She acts as a liaison between IT and business, to make complex data make sense and drive profits. With more than 300,000 tweets to her credit, she is also extremely active on social media.

7. Doug Laney

Doug Laney leads the data and analytics strategy practice with the consultancy, Caserta. Formerly he was a vice president and distinguished analyst with Gartner’s Chief Data Officer (CDO) research and advisory practice. He is an accomplished practitioner and recognized authority on data and analytics strategy, and is a three-time recipient of Gartner’s annual Thought Leadership Award. Mr. Laney specializes in and assists organizations with data monetization and valuation, open and syndicated data, data governance, and big-data based innovation.

8. Cindi Howson

Cindi Howson is the former Vice-President of Research at Gartner and the founder of BI Scorecard, an in-depth BI product reviews resource based on hands-on testing. Howson has advised clients on BI tool selections and strategies for over 20 years. She is also the author of Successful Business Intelligence: Unlock the Value of BI and Big Data and SAP Business Objects BI 4.0: The Complete Reference, as well as a faculty member of The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) and a contributing expert to Information Week.

9. Ben Lorica

Ben Lorica is the Chief Data Scientist at O’Reilly Media. Lorica has applied his BI, machine learning, and statistical analysis expertise in a variety of domains, including financial engineering, marketing and market research, web analytics, and text mining. Lorica hosts The O’Reilly Data Show podcast; he also blogs on data, technology, and culture at The Gradient Flow.

10. Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a Big Data and analytics expert, strategic performance consultant, keynote speaker, and author. He regularly publishes articles on Big Data and Analytics on Forbes. He is the author of several books, including Data Strategy — How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics, and the Internet of Things.

11. Hilary Mason

Hilary Mason is the Founder and CEO of Fast Forward Labs, a machine intelligence research company, as well as the GM of Machine Learning at Cloudera, and Data Scientist in residence at Accel, where she advises companies on their data strategy. Previously, she spent four years as Chief Scientist at Bitly. Mason is a blogger, speaker, and influencer with more than 120,000 Twitter followers, and she is a co-author of Data-Driven: Creating a Data Culture.

12. Joanna Schloss

Joanna Schloss is the VP of Product Marketing at Sauce Labs and an expert in the Dell Center of Excellence specializing in data and information management. Schloss’s areas of expertise include Big Data, analytics, BI, IoT, and data warehousing. With a combined experience in both startup and G500 environments, she has successfully launched numerous products, from business-focused analytic applications to data warehousing tools such as Business Objects Data Services.

13. Jen Stirrup

Jen Stirrup is a top influencer in Big Data and Business Intelligence. The founder of Data Relish, Jen, has 20 years of experience in the IT industry. She is a data strategist and technologist, Microsoft Data Platform Most Valuable Professional (MVP), a diversity and technical community advocate, and a public speaker and blogger. She is also the author of two books on Tableau and R, and she is in the process of writing one on Microsoft Power BI.

14. Dr. GP Pulipaka

Dr. Pulipaka works as a Chief Data Scientist at Accenture Technology and is one of the top data science leaders. With 9+ years of experience in deep learning, machine learning, data science, PyTorch, Python, TensorFlow and R, he regularly shares industry trends, blogs and resources with more than 110K followers on Twitter. The resources and posts from Dr. GP Pulipaka help everyone, from data science aspirants to professionals.

15. Monica Rogati

Independent data science and AI advisor, Monica helps organizations address their technical and strategic data and AI needs. She previously worked as a Data Scientist at LinkedIn and VP of Data at Jawbone. Her area of expertise includes data science, wearables and health, social network analysis, recommender systems and natural language processing. She was also named in Fast Company’s most creative people in business and Fortune Magazine’s Big Data All-Stars. She regularly writes on Medium.

16. Dr. Ganapathi Pulipaka

Chief AI HPC Scientist at Accenture Technology and best-selling author of “Big Data Appliances for In-Memory Computing: A Real-World Research Guide for Corporations to Tame and Wrangle Their Data.†He has 9+ years of experience in deep learning, machine learning, Python, TensorFlow, and others.

17. Laura Edell

As the Chief Data Scientist at Microsoft, Laura uses ML to solve complex business problems, specializing in model presentation. She is an expert in the data science industry, focusing on the ethics of AI and how to use social data for reinforcement learning and predicting outcomes. She shares her knowledge by speaking at summits and conferences as well as on podcasts.

18. Vin Vashishta

A top voice in data science and machine learning since 2015 and in the tech field for 20+ years, Vin Vashishta posts content for aspiring data scientists and teaches companies about machine learning integrations.

19. Jordan Morrow

Jordan is on a mission to close the data literacy skills gap and establish a data-centric culture. As the Global Head of Data Literacy at Qlik, he helps individuals and organizations realize their data and analytical potential by strengthening their data literacy.

20. Mico Yuk

Her BI & Analytics consulting company, BI Brainz makes it easier for CIO, CDOs, and Business Intelligence leaders to work with their users to create data visualizations that are story driven, have high user adoption and use SMART KPIs. She’s on a mission to make BI applications more visually appealing and easier to use. In addition, she is the host of Analytics on Fire Podcast, a forum to learn all about analytics, design, data visualization, mobility, cloud, internet of things and much more.

21. Kristen Kehrer

Kristen is not only a Data Science academic but also created Data Moves Me, a company to help data science teams interpret their machine learning models and fully communicate the caveats, influential variables, and paint a vivid picture of the model in a way that their stakeholders will understand. Her expertise in machine learning helps businesses that need to build trust and excitement around predictive modeling work across the organization. 

22. Andreas Kretz

Andreas has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top Voice in Data Science & Analytics in 2018 and 2019. His company Team Data Science has courses and tools to help people get into data engineering. His goal is to provide all the resources needed to learn data engineering and also provide a platform for collaboration.

23. Ken Jee

Ken is a master in sports analytics. For the past five years, he has been analyzing sports and business problems, working with three major sports organizations and amassing an arsenal of analytic techniques. His fast-growing YouTube Channel explores multiple aspects of data science, from tips on how to kickstart a career in data science, to videos with step-by-step guides to build a data science project from scratch. 

24. Gema Parreño Piqueras

Gema Parreño Piqueras is a data science expert in Apiumhub. She is a Spanish programmer who has designed Deep Asteroid, a network to detect the impact of asteroids on Earth. The project was a global finalist in the NASA Space competition App Challenge and was selected as one of the use cases by Google in the Google I / O keynote and TensorFlow. She has contributed to DeepMind’s project Pysc2. In 2019 Gema was selected as one of the 23 young people under 35 years old leaders of the technological revolution by Business Insider.

25. Favio Vazquez

Favio is one of Mexico’s finest data advocates and a leader, with over 100k followers on LinkedIn, where he consistently shares knowledge and ideas. In addition to providing marketing and business consulting, Favio recently founded Closter, an e-learning platform for Data Science. His live sessions on LinkedIn are a great way to learn how to discover valuable insights from data through Data Science.

26. Yves Mulkers

Yves Mulkers is one of the most important influencers when it comes to Data Science and BI. He is the founder of 7wData and uses his account to share information about relevant events, interesting articles, and news about other experts in industry.

27. Ian Goodfellow

Ian is the lead author of deeplearningbook.org and fascinates thousands of people on Twitter. He shares his best book and article recommendations, as well as his thoughts on the latest trends and updates.

28. Howard Dresner

The chief research officer at Dresner Advisory Services covers different subjects on his Twitter account such as Business Intelligence and Data Analytics.

29. Allie K. Miller

Allie Miller is the US Head of AI Business Development for Startups and Venture Capital at Amazon (AWS), advancing the greatest AI companies in the world. Previously, Allie was the youngest-ever woman to build an artificial intelligence product at IBM—spearheading large-scale product development across computer vision, conversation, data, and regulation. Allie has spoken about AI and field diversity around the world, addressed the European Commission, drafted foreign AI strategies, and created eight guidebooks to educate businesses on how to build successful AI projects. Allie was named by Forbes and AI Summit as 2019‘s “AI Innovator of the Yearâ€, LinkedIn Top Voice for Technology 2019, Award Magazine’s Top 50 Women in Tech, ReadWrite’s Top 20 AI Speakers in the World, MKAI’s Top 20 AI Mavericks, and Neptune’s Top 20 AI Influencers.

30. Andrew NG

Andrew Ng is VP & Chief Scientist of Baidu; Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Coursera; and an Adjunct Professor at Stanford University. Ng also works on machine learning with an emphasis on deep learning. He founded and led the “Google Brain†project which developed massive-scale deep learning algorithms. This resulted in the famous “Google cat†result, in which a massive neural network with 1 billion parameters learned from unlabeled YouTube videos to detect cats. More recently, he continues to work on deep learning and its applications to computer vision and speech, including such applications as autonomous driving.

31. Cassie Kozyrkov

Cassie is a data scientist and leader at Google with a mission to democratize Decision Intelligence and safe, reliable AI. She brings a unique combination of deep technical expertise, world-class public-speaking skills, analytics management experience, and ability to lead organizational change. She has provided guidance on more than 100 projects and designed Google’s analytics program, personally training over 20,000 Googlers in statistics, decision-making, and machine learning.

32. Andriy Burkov

Director of Data Science and Machine Learning at Gartner and Author of The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book. Andriy Burkov is a machine learning expert based in Quebec City, Canada. Nine years ago, he got a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence, and for the last six years, he’s been leading a team of machine learning developers at Gartner. His specialty is natural language processing. His team works on building state-of-the-art multilingual text extraction and normalization systems for production, using both shallow and deep learning technologies.

33. Hadley Wickham

Hadley Wickham is a statistician from New Zealand who is currently Chief Scientist at RStudio and an adjunct Professor of statistics at the University of Auckland, Stanford University, and Rice University. He is best known for his development of open-source statistical analysis software packages for R (programming language) that implement logics of data visualization and data transformation. Wickham’s packages and writing are known for advocating a tidy data approach to data import, analysis and modelling methods.

34. Randy Olson

Randy is a data tinkerer based in the Vancouver, WA area. He specializes in AI, machine learning, and data visualization, although he’s always learning something new to make himself more useful to his clients and collaborators. He regularly writes about his latest work on his personal blog. His work has been featured all over the world and in the news, including the New York Times, Wired, FiveThirtyEight, and much more.

35. Dr. Mark van Rijmenam

Dr. Mark van Rijmenam is an international keynote speaker. He is the author of three best-selling management books on big data, blockchain and AI. His latest book – The Organization of Tomorrow – details how AI, blockchain and analytics turn your business into a data organization. He is the founder of Datafloq.com, a leading content platform on emerging technologies.

36. Chip Huyen

Chip Huyen is a writer and computer scientist. She is currently with a startup that focuses on the machine learning production pipeline in Silicon Valley. Previously, she was with NVIDIA, Netflix, Primer, Baomoi.com (acquired by VNG).

37. Kate Strachnyi

Kate is famously known as Author of The Disruptors: Data Science Leaders. She is also the host of Datacated Weekly  –  a project dedicated to helping others learn about various topics in the data realm – as well as the host of Humans of Data Science on my Story by Data YouTube channel.

I hope you found this list useful. And if you need any help with your data science project, you can always count on us!