O'Neil holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Harvard and previously served as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT and professor at Barnard College, where she published research in arithmetic algebraic geometry. She transitioned to finance, working as a quantitative analyst for D.E. Shaw during the credit crisis and later for RiskMetrics. After leaving finance in 2011, she became a data scientist in New York's startup sector, developing predictive models. She authored Doing Data Science (2013) and established Columbia's Lede Program in Data Journalism (2014). A regular Bloomberg View contributor, she wrote Weapons of Math Destruction, examining "how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy." She recently established ORCAA for algorithmic auditing work.
Roundtable Appearances
