This is a lightly-edited recording of the fourth Professional Advancement Workshop Series (PAWS) session. This event was a lightly structured panel featuring data scientists Dr. Dave Spiegel (Stitch Fix), Dr. Jess Kirkpatrick (thredUP), and Dr. Thibaut Astic (KoBold Metals). They answered many audience questions about the transition from academia to data science, what the field is like, and what skills are most valued in the field. We thank the panelists for sharing their time and experience with us!

PAWS is generously sponsored by the NASA Astrobiology division.

Resources:

Thanks to Dr. Jess Kirkpatrick for forwarding these resources to us!

Astronomy to Data Science Workshop on March 30th on Zoom (free!): You don’t have to be an astronomer to attend, but talks will be aimed at academics wanting to transition to data science given by people who have done this transition: http://jeffreymsilverman.com/atds2022.html

Physicists and Astronomers turned Data Scientists Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/astro.phys.data

Dr. Jess Kirkpatrick’s blog with FAQ and info about transitioning: http://berkeleyjess.blogspot.com/2015/02/so-you-want-to-be-data-scientist.html