Travis Oliphant

{{Infobox person

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Travis Oliphant

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1971}}

| birth_place = Salt Lake City, Utah

| education = PhD in Biomedical Engineering, B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mathematics and Electrical Engineering

| nationality = American

| alma_mater = Brigham Young University

| occupation = Businessman, data scientist

| known_for = Open-source software, NumPy, SciPy, Anaconda (Python distribution), Probabilistic programming, OpenTeams

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Travis Oliphant is an American data scientist, software developer, and entrepreneur known for his contributions to the Python scientific computing ecosystem. He is the primary creator of Numpy, a foundational package for numerical computation in Python, and a founding contributor to SciPy{{Cite web |title=PyData Austin 2019 - Travis E Oliphant |url=https://pydata.org/austin2019/speaker/profile/25/speaker-2/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=pydata.org}}. Oliphant is also a co-founder{{cite web|title=NumFOCUS History|url=https://numfocus.org/history|website=NumFOCUS|accessdate=7 May 2020}} of NumFOCUS, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity in the United States that supports open-source scientific software.{{Cite web |title=People: The NumFOCUS Team |url=https://numfocus.org/community/people |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=NumFOCUS |language=en-US}} He is also a founder of several technology companies, including Anaconda, [https://quansight.com/ Quansight], and [https://openteams.com/ OpenTeams].{{cite book |last1=Oliphant |first1=Travis |title=Guide to NumPy |date=2015 |publisher=CreateSpace |isbn=978-1517300074 |edition=2}}

Early life and education

Oliphant earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in mathematics and electrical engineering from Brigham Young University. He later completed a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at the Mayo Clinic, where his research focused on medical imaging and signal processing.{{cite journal |first1=Hongze |last1=Liu |first2=Aaron R. |last2=Hawkins |first3=Stephen M. |last3=Schultz |first4=Travis E. |last4=Oliphant |date=February 15, 2008 |title=Fast Nonlinear Image Reconstruction for Scanning Impedance Imaging |journal=IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering |volume=55 |issue=3 |pages=970–977 |doi=10.1109/TBME.2007.905485 |pmid=18334388 |s2cid=39843759 }}{{cite web |title=Travis Oliphant |url=https://theorg.com/org/numfocus/org-chart/travis-oliphant |website=The Org |access-date=27 January 2023}}

Academic career

From 2001 to 2007, Oliphant served as an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Brigham Young University. During his tenure, he directed the Biomedical Imaging Lab, where his research centered on scanning impedance imaging and other computational imaging techniques.{{Cite web|title = Travis E. Oliphant - Google Scholar Citations|url = https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=kUTSKZwAAAAJ&hl=en|website = scholar.google.com|accessdate = 2016-01-08}}

Contributions to open source

= NumPy and SciPy =

In 2005, Oliphant created NumPy, which unified earlier numerical libraries such as [https://docs.python.org/3/library/numeric.html Numeric] and numarray.{{Cite web |title=NumPy - About Us |url=https://numpy.org/about/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=numpy.org}} NumPy has since become a core component of the Python ecosystem, widely used in scientific computing, machine learning, and data science{{Cite web |title=NumPy |url=https://numpy.org/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=numpy.org}}. He also contributed to the development of SciPy{{Cite web |title=PyData Austin 2019 - Travis E Oliphant |url=https://pydata.org/austin2019/speaker/profile/25/speaker-2/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=pydata.org}}, expanding Python's capabilities for applied mathematics, signal processing, and statistical analysis.

= NumFOCUS =

In 2012, Oliphant co-founded [https://numfocus.org/ NumFOCUS]{{Cite web |title=NumFOCUS History |url=https://numfocus.org/history |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=NumFOCUS |language=en-US}}, a nonprofit that supports the open-source scientific computing community. He remains active on its advisory board{{Cite web |title=People: The NumFOCUS Team |url=https://numfocus.org/community/people |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=NumFOCUS |language=en-US}}. In 2012, he co-founded Contimuum Analytics (renamed Anaconda Inc. in 2017{{Cite web |date=2017-06-28 |title=Anaconda {{!}} Continuum Analytics Officially Becomes Anaconda |url=https://www.anaconda.com/blog/continuum-analytics-officially-becomes-anaconda |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=Anaconda |language=en-US}}), where he served as CEO until 2017. The company developed the Anaconda distribution, a widely used platform for managing Python environments and data science tools.

Under Oliphant's leadership, Continuum Analytics raised $24 million in Series A funding in 2015 and received funding from DARPA to develop GPU-accelerated extensions to Python for high-performance computing.

Career

= Enthought and Anaconda =

From 2007 to 2011, Oliphant was president of Enthought, a scientific computing company. In 2012, he co-founded Continuum Analytics (renamed Anaconda Inc. in 2017{{Cite web |date=2017-06-28 |title=Continuum Analytics Officially Becomes Anaconda |url=https://www.anaconda.com/blog/continuum-analytics-officially-becomes-anaconda |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=Anaconda |language=en-US}}), where he served as CEO until 2017. The company developed the [https://www.anaconda.com/docs/getting-started/anaconda/main Anaconda distribution], a widely used platform for managing Python environments and data science tools.

= Quansight and OpenTeams =

After departing Anaconda in 2017, Oliphant founded [https://quansight.com/ Quansight], a services and consulting firm focused on supporting open source technologies in enterprise settings.{{Cite web |title=Home {{!}} Quansight Consulting |url=https://quansight.com/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=quansight.com |language=en-US}} In 2019, he launched [https://openteams.com/ OpenTeams], a platform aimed at helping companies build and manage open-source-based AI infrastructure. As of 2025, he serves as its president.{{Cite web |last=Fumarel |first=Irina |date=2024-11-21 |title=About us {{!}} OpenTeams: Open SaaS AI Solutions {{!}} Own Your Future with Open Source |url=https://openteams.com/about-us/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |language=en-US}}

In 2025, OpenTeams acquired the AI consulting division of Quansight, including its core engineering team. The two companies had operated as sister organizations since OpenTeams' inception. This acquisition was part of a strategic realignment: OpenTeams scaled its enterprise and government AI offerings, while Quansight restructured as a Public Benefit Corporation to focus on sustaining open-source communities. As part of the transition, former Quansight CTO [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=u7zuQE8AAAAJ&hl=en Dharhas Pothina] joined OpenTeams as its new CTO.{{Cite web |last=Profile Advisors |date=May 27, 2025 |title=OpenTeams Acquires Quansight’s AI Consulting Division to Accelerate Open Source AI for Enterprise and Government |url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250527258356/en/OpenTeams-Acquires-Quansights-AI-Consulting-Division-to-Accelerate-Open-Source-AI-for-Enterprise-and-Government |access-date=June 4, 2025 |website=Business Wire}}

= Open Source AI Foundation =

In February 2025, Oliphant co-founded the [https://theopensourceai.foundation/ Open Source AI Foundation (O-SAIF)] alongside Brittany Kaiser, known for her role in the Cambridge Analytica case{{Cite web |title=Targeted |url=https://www.harpercollins.com/products/targeted-brittany-kaiser |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=HarperCollins |language=en}}, and former Wyoming legislator Tyler Lindholm{{Cite web |title=Open Source AI Foundation’s Team |url=https://theopensourceai.foundation/our-team/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=Open Source AI Foundation |language=en-US}}. The organization advocates for open and auditable AI systems and aims to create public-interest infrastructure for AI development.

Publications

[https://numpy.org/learn/ Guide to NumPy] (Trelgol Publishing, 2006): a comprehensive manual and reference guide for users of NumPy, widely used in academic and industry settings.{{Cite web |title=NumPy - Learn |url=https://numpy.org/learn/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |website=numpy.org}}

Honors and recognition

Oliphant has been recognized as a key contributor to the growth of the Python ecosystem in scientific computing. NumPy and SciPy are among the most cited tools in academic literature for data science and machine learning, and he has delivered keynote addresses at conferences such as SciPy and PyCon.{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yWFMuBDxoA |title=Travis Oliphant Keynote PyCon Colombia 2023 |date=2023-07-30 |last=PyCon Colombia |access-date=2025-06-04 |via=YouTube}}

He spoke at the Centaurs AI Summit, Davos 2025 Edition.{{Cite web |title=Agenda – The Centaurs AI Summit |url=https://thecentaurs.ai/agenda/ |access-date=2025-06-04 |language=en-US}}