Travis Oliphant is an American

data scientist Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and systems to extract or extrapolate knowledge and insights from noisy, structured and unstructured data, and apply knowledge from data across a bro ...

and businessman. He is a co-founder of NumFOCUS, 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity in the United States, and sits on its advisory board. He is also a

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

of technology

startup A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

Anaconda Anacondas or water boas are a group of large snakes of the genus ''Eunectes''. They are found in tropical South America. Four species are currently recognized. Description Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to re ...

(''previously Continuum Analytics''). In addition, Travis is the primary creator of NumPy and founding contributor to the

SciPy SciPy (pronounced "sigh pie") is a free and open-source Python library used for scientific computing and technical computing. SciPy contains modules for optimization, linear algebra, integration, interpolation, special functions, FFT, signal ...

packages in the

Python Python may refer to: Snakes * Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia ** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia * Python (mythology), a mythical serpent Computing * Python (pro ...

programming language.

Early life and education

Oliphant has a Ph.D. from the

Mayo Clinic The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staff, ...

and B.S. and M.S. degrees in

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

Career

Oliphant was an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University from 2001 to 2007. In addition, he directed the BYU Biomedical Imaging Lab, and performed research on scanning impedance imaging. Oliphant served as President of

Enthought Enthought, Inc. is a software company based in Austin, Texas, United States that develops scientific and analytic computing solutions using primarily the Python programming language. It is best known for the early development and maintenance of t ...

from 2007 until 2011. He founded Continuum Analytics in January 2012 (subsequently renamed to Anaconda Inc.). Continuum makes the Python distribution

. In July 2015 Continuum Analytics received 24 million dollars in

Series A A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

Funding. Continuum Analytics received a $100,000 award from

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

for the feasibility of designing a high-level data-parallel language extension to Python on

graphics processing unit A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...

s (GPUs). On January 1, 2018, Oliphant announced he was leaving Anaconda Inc. He subsequently co-founded Quansight later that same year. He is also a member of the advisory council of the non-profit scientific computing foundation NumFOCUS.

Books written

Oliphant is the author of the textbook ''Guide To NumPy'' and associated manuals.

Articles

* * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oliphant, Travis Brigham Young University alumni Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Python (programming language) people American statisticians Data scientists 1971 births