One word from the NYT: Statistics

The New York Times has an article today about the emergence of Statistics as a discipline at the forefront of today’s data-laden world. The articles details how statisticians are in hot demand at companies like Google, Netflix and IBM, and claims that statisticians can earn $125,000 at top companies after completing a PhD. The reason:

In field after field, computing and the Web are creating new realms of data to explore — sensor signals, surveillance tapes, social network chatter, public records and more. And the digital data surge only promises to accelerate, rising fivefold by 2012, according to a projection by IDC, a research firm.

I’ve long lamented that statisticians lack a hero to make the field seem exciting — Indiana Jones made archaeologists into action heroes, for Pete’s sake! — but the role of statistician seems to have progressed beyond “nerdish wonk” even if it isn’t quite yet to rock-star status. In the article, Hal Varian of Google reprises his now-famous quote, “That the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians.” Statistical analysis is even recognized as game-changing at the highest levels of power: the article points to a speech by …

In field after field, computing and the Web are creating new realms of data to explore — sensor signals, surveillance tapes, social network chatter, public records and more. And the digital data surge only promises to accelerate, rising fivefold by 2012, according to a projection by IDC, a research firm.