Catherine "Cathy" Helen O'Neil (born 1972) is an American mathematician, data scientist, and author. She is the author of the ''New York Times'' best-seller '' Weapons of Math Destruction'', and opinion columns in

Bloomberg View Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...

. O'Neil was active in the Occupy movement.

Education and career

O'Neil attended

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

as an undergraduate, received a Ph.D. in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1999, and afterward held positions in the mathematics departments of

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

and

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

. She left academia in 2007, and worked for four years in the finance industry. She worked as an analyst at D. E. Shaw & Co. After becoming disenchanted with the world of finance, O'Neil became involved with the

Occupy Wall Street Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...

movement, participating in its Alternative Banking Group. O'Neil operates the blog mathbabe.org and is a contributor to Bloomberg View. Her first book, ''Doing Data Science'', was written with Rachel Schutt and published in 2013. In 2016, her second book, ''Weapons of Math Destruction'' was published, long-listed for the

National Book Award for Nonfiction The National Book Award for Nonfiction is one of five US annual National Book Awards, which are given by the National Book Foundation to recognize outstanding literary work by US citizens. They are awards "by writers to writers". The panelists a ...

and became a ''New York Times'' best-seller. A third book, ''The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation'', was published March 2022. She is the founder of O'Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing (ORCAA), an algorithmic auditing company.

Awards

In 1993 O'Neil was awarded the Alice T. Schafer Prize from the

Association for Women in Mathematics The Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM) is a professional society whose mission is to encourage women and girls to study and to have active careers in the mathematical sciences, and to promote equal opportunity for and the equal treatment o ...

and in 2019 she won the MAA's

Euler Book Prize The Euler Book Prize is an award named after Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) and given annually at the Joint Mathematics Meetings by the Mathematical Association of America to an outstanding book in mathematics that ...

for her book ''Weapons of Math Destruction''.

Personal life

O'Neil lives in Massachusetts and has three sons.

Bibliography

* With Rachel Schutt, ''Doing Data Science: Straight Talk from the Frontline'' (O'Reilly 2013, ). * ''On Being a Data Skeptic'' (O'Reilly Media 2013, ). * '' Weapons of Math Destruction'' (Crown 2016, ). * ''The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation'' (Crown 2022, ).

References

External links

*
ORCAA - O'Neil Risk Consulting & Algorithmic Auditing
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:ONeil, Cathy Harvard University alumni American bloggers University of California, Berkeley alumni Columbia University faculty Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism faculty 21st-century American women scientists 1972 births Living people Science bloggers 21st-century science writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers American women bloggers American data scientists 21st-century American mathematicians Women data scientists 21st-century American women mathematicians D. E. Shaw & Co. people