As you might have heard, Dr. Jim Goodnight has a passion for helping customers solve problems. I've been thinking about Dr. Goodnight's background as I read up on the trendy "data scientist" term and wondering whether the SAS CEO was in fact the very first data scientist.

Let's review the facts.

First, Dr. Goodnight learned computer programming, which he used to help pay for his college education.  In college he earned multiple degrees in statistics.  This combination of experience and learning showed him first-hand that computer programming was the most efficient way to apply analytics to data to derive useful insight or information that could lead to better decision making.

The rest, as the saying goes, is history. Dr. Goodnight left his teaching position as a professor in the statistics department at North Carolina State University to start SAS in 1976.

He has built up within the SAS R&D division a combination of expert data scientists working along-side expert computer scientists. Combining their talents together has led to the development of the most efficient and effective programming environment designed for supporting the entire analytics lifecycle associated with data, not just the statistical algorithms for computing results.

As a result, I would say that once again, Dr. Goodnight was ahead of the curve, acting in the role of a data scientist well before the term was even coined.Over the years I have watched our company transition from providing strong foundational "tools" to developing solutions tthat address problems in specific industries. This core foundation from the mind of a data scientist still provides the strategic advantage of integrated analytics and reports that look into the future instead of simply reporting on the past.

To learn more about how SAS continues to innovate and transform the world please take a look at our High Performance Analytics.