News/Research

Alum Stuart Geiger on Career Paths in Academic Data Science

02 Jul, 2018

Alum Stuart Geiger on Career Paths in Academic Data Science

A joint collaboration between the Berkeley Institute for Data Science at UC-Berkeley, the eScience Institute at UW-Seattle, and the Center for Data Science at New York University produced a fascinating survey and report on career paths and prospects in academic data science. Alum Stuart Geiger joined Charlotte Mazel-Cabasse, Chihoko Cullens, Laura Norén, Brittany Fiore-Gartland, Diya Das, and Henry Brady in publishing the results of their work.

Over 167 researchers who were affiliated with these three institutes for data science were surveyed, with respondents spanning many fields, roles, and career stages.

From their announcement of the report:

Our research also shows that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to creating fulfilling, sustainable career paths for academic data scientists, as our respondents often had different career goals and priorities. Some deeply value autonomy in research and want to be principal investigators on their own grants, while others see themselves closer to research consultants or infrastructure support. Data scientists place different importance on factors like having influence on the direction of their university, lifetime/tenured employment, or a highly respected professional title. It is important to support data scientists seeking traditional faculty roles, as well as those in the “alt-fac” trajectory. Finally, it is important to provide early career researchers with support, guidance, and professional development so that they can know what various career paths look like in and out of academia. We provide composite portraits of individuals who are in several of these different situations, in collaboration with a broader interview and ethnographic-based project on data science in academia.

Read the announcement here.

You can also read the paper directly here.