Twelve Books That Made Me a Better Data Scientist

…and now help me in my day-to-day work

Photo by bantersnaps on Unsplash

I started my career as an academic researcher in the areas of Ecology and Invasion Biology. That involved lots of fieldwork and lab experiments, followed by statistical analyses of the collected data and publishing in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, I taught several data analysis-heavy courses to university undergrads and Master students, including Biostatistics, Population Ecology, and Ecological Modeling.

All of that experience became extremely useful when I decided to leave academia and apply my data analysis skills to solving business problems. Believe it or not, my decision at the time was triggered by the famous article in Harvard Business Review, which stated that Data Science was going to be the sexiest job of the 21st century. Since then, I have had the opportunity to work for a number of companies in industries as diverse as Chemicals, Telecommunications, Online Gaming, and Insurance.

Times and times again while working as a Data Scientist, I have found myself referring to a select few books on statistical techniques, programming tricks, and project management. These books helped me become who I am today in my profession. I thought it might be of interest to my fellow Data Scientists, aspiring and seasoned alike, if I gave a brief…