By way of introduction, rather than talk about myself, I want to talk about the my favorite graph. It will be a good way to tell you why I'm studying data science and why I'm so excited by it's potential. Also, I bet that you've never seen such an epic story told so powerfully and so simply.

Minard's Map of Napoleon's Campaign

Charles Joseph Minard (1781-1870) was a French engineer who pioneered many of the graphical depictions of data that we use today. In retirement, he drew the visualization of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812 you can see above. I'm not the only one to consider this "the best statistical graphic ever drawn".

Follow the thick gray line representing the Grande Armée at it's full strength as it marches into the Russian Empire. Napoleon wanted to quickly engage the Tsar's army, defeat them, and get out before the winter. The Russians, however, retreated, burning crops and settlements to deny the Napoleon's army any supplies. Guerilla tactics and hunger began to thin the French forces. Finally, Napoleon defeated the Russian army in battle but arrived to find Moscow burning, which denied his army shelter from the Russian winter.

The black line follows the retreat west. The bottom of the graph displays the freezing winter temperatures. The French forces, low on supplies, harried by Russian forces, and unprepared for the harsh winter died in droves. Less than 10,000 out of the initial 450,000 men made it out of Russia. (The exact figures are disputed.)

Numbers and statistics generally have a reputation of being bloodless and cold, which is an understandable reaction to dry, obscure tables of numbers, but good data science can be can have a powerful emotional impact. The painting above is of Napoleon's army crossing the river Berezina. Below is a close up of that incident on Minard's map.

Both images convey the horror of crossing the icy river under fire, but I was floored by the magnitude of the loss of life shown by the sudden thinning of the line on Minard's map.

The concision of the visualization is its strength. Minard managed to combine location, weather, and the size of the army in one picture. The disaster, the cold, and distance from Moscow are immediate and intuitive.

This is the kind of work I want to do.