Astronomers Turned Data Scientists

Chris Lindner

Data Scientist at Indeed

The majority of Astronomy and Physics PhDs will never be career academics. In past decades, astronomers moved into a myriad of jobs, from high school teachers to C++ developers. Today, PhD scientists with the right skillsets are in high demand in the rapidly growing field of data science.

What is data science? What's the job market like? What skills should astronomy and physics students be learning to prepare for non-academic careers?

In my talk, I'll share my experience moving from an Astronomy PhD to managing data science teams. I'll dive into the data collected by Indeed, the world's #1 job site, to see what it says about who's getting jobs in data science. Finally, I'll share my own recommendations for what universities can do to better prepare students for both academic and non-academic careers.