Cathy O'Neil
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3d/Cathy_O%27Neil_at_Google_Cambridge.jpg/220px-Cathy_O%27Neil_at_Google_Cambridge.jpg)
Cathy (Catherine) Helen O'Neil is the author of the blog mathbabe.org and several books, including Weapons of Math Destruction. She was the former Director of the Lede Program in Data Practices at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Tow Center and was employed as Data Science Consultant[1] at Johnson Research Labs.
She lives in New York City and is active in the Occupy movement.[2]
Education and academic career
O'Neil attended UC Berkeley as an undergraduate, [2] received a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard University in 1999,[3] and afterward held positions in the mathematics departments of MIT and Barnard College, doing research in arithmetic algebraic geometry.[4] She left academia in 2007, and worked for four years in the finance industry, including two years at the hedge fund D. E. Shaw.[5] After becoming disillusioned with the world of finance, O'Neil became involved with the Occupy Wall Street movement,[2] participating in its Alternative Banking Group.[6]
She is a co-author (with Rachel Schutt) of Doing Data Science: Straight Talk from the Frontline (O'Reilly 2013, ISBN 1449358659). She also wrote an e-book On Being a Data Skeptic (O'Reilly Media 2013, ASIN: B00G3M9JY2). Her book Weapons of Math Destruction was published in 2016 (Crown, ISBN 0553418815) and has been nominated for the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction.[7][8]
Personal life
O'Neil lives in New York City with her husband Aise Johan de Jong and their three sons.[9]
References
- ^ "Talk by Cathy O'Neil at Columbia Institute for Data Sciences & Engineering". Retrieved 2014-02-26.
- ^ a b c "PBS Interview". Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- ^ Catherine Helen O'Neil, Mathematics Genealogy.
- ^ "Strata conference speakers bios". Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- ^ "Library of Economics and Liberty interview". Retrieved 25 July 2013.
- ^ Josh Harkinson (Dec 13, 2011), Meet the Financial Wizards Working With Occupy Wall Street, Mother Jones magazine
- ^ 2016 National Book Award Longlist, Nonfiction, National Book Foundation
- ^ The National Book Awards Longlist: Nonfiction, The New Yorker, September 14, 2016
- ^ "mathbabe.org about page". Retrieved 25 July 2013.