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tist to make tremendous impacts in very different environments, from startups to
centuries-old institutions. This combination of versatility and morality comes through
as he describes his belief in a functioning press and his role inside of it, why he values
“people, ideas, and things in that order,” and why caring and creativity are what he
looks for in other people's work. Wiggins's passion for mentoring and advising future
scientists and citizens across all of his roles is a leitmotif of his interview.
Gutierrez: Tell me about where you work.
Wiggins: I split my time between Columbia University, where I am an associate
professor of applied mathematics, and The New York Times, where I am the
chief data scientist. I could talk about each institution for a long time. As
background, I have a long love for New York City. I came to New York to go
to Columbia as an undergraduate in the 1980s. I think of Columbia University
itself as this great experiment to see if you can foster an Ivy League education
and a strong scientific and research community within the experiment of New
York City, which is full of excitement and distraction and change and, most of
all, full of humanity. Columbia University is a very exciting and dynamic place,
full of very disruptive students and alumni, myself included, and has been for
centuries.
The New York Times is also centuries old. It's a 163-year-old company, and I
think it also stands for a set of values that I strongly believe in and is also very
strongly associated with New York, which I like very much. When I think of
The New York Times, I think of the sentiment expressed by Thomas Jefferson
that if you could choose between a functioning democracy and a dysfunctional
press, or a functioning press and a dysfunctional democracy, he would rather
have the functioning press. You need a functioning press and a functioning
journalistic culture to foster and ensure the survival of democracy.
I get the joy of working with three different companies whose missions I
strongly value. The third company where I spend my time is a nonprofit that
I cofounded, called hackNY, 1 many years ago. I remain very active as the co-
organizer. In fact, tonight, we're going to have another hackNY lecture, and I'll
have a meeting today with the hackNY general manager to deal with opera-
tions. So I really split my time among three companies, all of whose mission I
value: The New York Times and the two nonprofits—Columbia University and
hackNY.
Gutierrez: How does data science fit into your work?
1 http://hackNY.org
 
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