ANNMARIA DE MARS

Ph.D., MBA, statistician, president of small consulting company in sunny Santa Monica. It's my job to find meaning in data.

If it is true that there are two kinds of scientists, those who use mathematics and those who understand mathematics, then I am the first type. I am not going to be having new mathematical theories named after me any time soon. However, I understand more than enough math to realize that without it, many fields, from finance to economics to computer science to physics - way more than half the world, is closed. I make it my job to open that world, to clients, to students, and just to random people who read my blog.

I'm also a pretty good SAS programmer, and in my wayward youth I was the first American to win the world championships in judo.

I have four daughters, the second and third were born while I was getting my doctorate and the fourth just as my company was taking off in sales. So, yeah, pretty much my entire life is the opposite of what conventional wisdom says you "must be" to be a successful woman in a tech field.

Conventional wisdom can bite me.

The one TV show I would most like to be in if it was real life is Numbers - and sometimes my work is just like that, one of many reasons that I love my life.