A Conversation with Heather Turner at useR! 2014

DataScience.LA Podcast

Heather Turner is a biostatistician and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Warwick, as well as a consultant. She became familiar with R during her PhD studies as an R user, and a few years later she developed the Generalized Non-Linear Models package which is still in use today. Our conversation, at useR! 2014, begins with this transition from R user to R developer. As an academic with roots outside of the traditional Computer Science background, Dr. Turner had some fascinating insights about what makes the R programming language interesting and different. She is a former editor of the R Journal and the local organizer for the useR! 2011 conference, and holds a wealth of information about the field of data science, the state of the technology, and the wider community. There is certainly more in this interview than I can mention in this brief introduction - from her new work using Shiny to communicate in statistical education to how to encourage younger generations to enter the fields of statistics and data science. This is genuinely a must listen podcast, with lots of great information and some fantastic level-headed advice. I hope you find it as enlightening as I have!