Most of the time, Dr. Argyro "Iro" Tasitsiomi prefers putting an Expo marker to a whiteboard over a computer program that can crunch the numbers. As the head of artificial intelligence and investments data science at T. Rowe Price, Tasitsiomi may spend an hour with her team doing math on the whiteboard on a given day.

A former astrophysicist, she says she is commonly asked what one should focus on in pursuit of a career in data science. "Make sure you know your stats," she says. "I am a strong