March is Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate women’s contributions to history, culture, and society at large. At JMP, we’re fortunate to have some amazing women working across the division.
Celebrating JMP Women is a series where we’ll profile select women who are making a difference.
Today’s we celebrate Principal Research Statistician Developer Laura Lancaster. Laura has worked with JMP since 2004 and is a critical member of the JMP Development team. When she’s not working to help JMP customers do amazing things with our software, Laura loves to travel (especially if it involves the water) and enjoys playing the violin, reading, exercising and volunteering.
Let’s learn a little more about Laura.
Can you tell us briefly about what inspired you to pursue a STEM career? Is there a moment, early in your life or academic career that pushed you in that direction?
I started to really like math and science when I was in high school, but I was unsure of what I wanted to do for a career or even study in college. I considered the idea of going into medicine because it combined science and helping people, but I always hated dissecting animals in science labs and still feel faint at the sight of blood. So, I wasn’t really sure that medicine would be such a great fit. I went to college at Stetson University, a small liberal arts university in Florida, as an undeclared major because I still didn’t know what to study or do for a career. I did focus my studies in the sciences, and I started taking classes towards a Biology major. I found biology fascinating, but I didn’t enjoy the labs or all of the memorization (especially taxonomy). About that time my calculus professor asked me to come into his office to discuss the idea of majoring in mathematics. He showed me all of the careers possibilities for people who major in mathematics, and I was actually pretty blown away. I had pretty much thought the only thing you could do with a math major was teach high school math, and I knew I didn’t want to do that. It didn’t take me long after that discussion with my calculus professor to declare my major as mathematics, since my math classes were my favorite classes.
How did your journey land you at JMP?
In my junior year I took my first computer science course, and absolutely loved it. In fact, I liked it so much that I wanted to double major in math and computer science, but because I didn’t take the first class until my junior year I would have had to stay an extra year in college to finish the double major. My scholarships ran out after four years, and private school was going to be too expensive to pay for out of my own pocket, so I decided to settle for minoring in computer science. I wish that I had known how much I liked computer science; I would have taken the courses earlier. Anyway, that same math professor who talked to me about majoring in mathematics also encouraged me to go to graduate school in mathematics. The mathematical sciences program at Clemson University appealed to me because it allowed students to get a taste of several areas of math such as operations research, statistics, computational math and analysis. I ended up getting a Master’s degree with a concentration in operations research, and then I decided to pursue a PhD in Management Science. The Management Science program was an applied math program that was mostly in the math department but also had some applied coursework in the business school. Once again, I chose to concentrate in operations research, but the degree also required a lot of statistics coursework. This was when I started to find statistics pretty fascinating. This background, and some of my early professional positions prepared me well for my roles at JMP.
What do you enjoy most about working at JMP?
I enjoy seeing how our customers use JMP software to succeed and excel in their work, whether it is scientific discovery, improving quality and reliability, or any of the myriad of ways our customers use JMP to improve our world through analyzing data. I also really enjoy learning new things and collaborating with all the smart, creative, kind people in JMP.
What do you consider to be your greatest career achievement …or one that just makes you happy/proud?
I don’t know about a greatest career achievement, but I am always really delighted to hear when something that I worked on has made a customer’s job easier or improved their work.
What do you consider to be your greatest personal achievement …or one that just makes you smile?
A personal achievement that I was very happy about was being able to go to a small liberal arts university for undergraduate work because I was able to obtain enough academic and music scholarships to make it affordable.
Did you have a mentor who helped you achieve academic or professional success early in your career? Who would you consider your mentor today?
I’ve had lots of encouraging mentors over the years, beginning with high school math and science teachers to graduate school professors. However, the math professor at Stetson who encouraged me to major in mathematics and go to graduate school was a standout. I would consider many of the amazing people in JMP R&D to be my mentors today. There are so many great colleagues that I can learn from technically, professionally, and personally.
What advice would you give young women interested in pursuing a STEM career?
I would encourage all young women NOT to believe any stereotypes that are out there about people who study and work in STEM. If a young woman enjoys STEM subjects, they should seriously consider a career in STEM. It is highly rewarding and fulfilling.
Tailgating at an NCSU-Clemson Football Game ,2019
Sailing with friends in France, 2019
Laura - so great getting to know more about how you got into STEM, it's so wonderful that you had the right mentor to be able to help you find your passions! I am curious though, what musical talent helped you with going to Stetson?
Go Tigers! We had similar trajectories....small liberal arts to the Clemson mathematical sciences program - the liberal arts of math. Fun to learn more about you!
We're so lucky to have you as a colleague, Laura! I'm very grateful for your kindness and support since I got to JMP!
Thanks for sharing more about yourself, Laura! We are indeed lucky to have you in JMP R&D!
You are amazing! Such an inspiration! I miss seeing you in the halls and at the SAS gym.
Laura is one of those smart, creative, kind people in JMP that I enjoy working with. Thanks Laura for sharing!
